Prisoner of War
Rufus was up early the next morning. He wasn't always an early riser, but he had had some trouble sleeping. No one else was up, not even Madison, who he had not spoken to since he had kissed her. In fact, this was the first time he could even look at her without getting glared at, or stares from the rest of the campers.
"Stupid girl," he mumbled and walked into the forest in search of Madison's horse.
Confession Cam:
(Rufus) "It's not like I meant to kiss her. Like I said earlier, the only thing I like about her is her horse… and her new wardrobe is okay as well."
He found the horse where he usually found her, by her grooming tools. Rufus grabbed the brush and began to light brush Misty's side. The horse, he noted, probably liked him more than any person on the island. It was probably because he treated Misty with more respect than he treated the rest of the campers put together.
It was a few hours later that Madison, after looking for Misty, whistling for Misty and not getting a response, came wandering back onto camp. "Have any ya'll seen mah horse?" she asked.
"Nope," Jamie said. He had somehow acquired a pan and was cooking some of the fruits they had. There were fried bananas, buttered apples, and so forth. The Toucans were happily eating away with the three Iguanas that weren't staring others down. Nessa and Phoebe were sitting on one side of the group eating grapefruits while Walter and Erik were on the opposite side of camp with all the cherries.
"You know, I haven't seen Rufus either," Ashlynn said.
"Good!" Madison snapped. "Ah ought to smack that boy for assault."
Confession Cam:
(Gail) "Yeah, she so is acting against her feelings. She liked that kiss and she knows it. She slept with an awfully big smile on her face, and she was facing his tent. And not to mention, Rufus is pretty darn good looking."
(Walter) "He kissed you. Get over it and shut up, will you. Her wailings are giving me a headache almost as loud as her voice. I'd rather suffer ten of Chris's challenges… wait, maybe this is a challenge in disguise." His eyes shift from side to side.
(Rufus) "I momentarily forgot whose arm I was clutching."
(Madison) "If he even thinks about kissing me again… not even Ah wanna think about what Ah'll do to his skinny behind."
(Nessa) "If Manny were here, he'd convince her to not break all our ear drums and to confront Rufus. And then we'd be rid of both of them for the day."
Alex was staring at Gail from where he sat next to Jamie as Jamie continued to cook. Gail, Ashlynn, and Bex were at the shore picking up seashells for some jewelry idea Gail had.
"You'd think that if Rufus could even think to kiss someone like Madison, then talking with someone like Gail would be a lot easier for me," he said. "I mean, he kissed her and survived. And he can't flirt with Gail and seriously expect her to like him any more."
"Then go talk to her," Jamie said. "What do you want in your omelets?"
"Onions, mushrooms, ham… omelet? Where did you get eggs for an omelet?"
"Todd nabbed them from the floating dining hall," Jamie said.
"Won't Chef kill you two for that?" He turned to the dock to see the floating dining hall was docked.
"Not if he can't get out of the net," Jamie said.
"Do I even want to know?"
"Probably safest for you if you didn't," Jamie said. "But, Bex had a taste for omelets, so Todd and I came up with a plan to get eggs and omelet toppings. We got enough for everyone. Cheddar, American, Swiss, or mozzarella? Or something that may or may not be cheese?"
"Cheddar," Alex said.
"Campers!" Chris walked onto the Dock of Shame. "Your next challenge begins in ten, so could you please all come to the Dock of Shame." All the campers groaned as they stopped whatever they were doing and headed to the dock. To everyone's surprise, Rufus actually appeared.
"I could have sworn he ran away or something," Autumn said.
"Too bad," Bex said. "We almost had some peace."
"Yeah, without him you had a chance or winning," Nessa said.
"I have one thing to say to that," Alex said. "Three in a row."
The Iguanas all frowned at him and Phoebe made a face.
"So, what's today's torture?" Walter asked.
"It's a little game I like to call P.O.W." Chris said. He motioned to the camouflage caps and paintball guns next to him.
"What does P.O.W. stand for here?" Todd asked grabbing a hat and gun. "Prisoner of War?"
"Correct," Chris said. "You all remember two challenges ago, when you had to face a close person to you, right?"
"You kidnapped them and we have to save them from the other team?" Genevieve gasped and dropped her gun. It went off and shot several of her teammates. "Sorry…"
"No, but, as it turned out, Gail's cousin and Madison's brother got lost… very lost. So, today's mission is who can find them on the island and bring them back to camp first. Iguanas, you're looking for Greg. Toucans, you're looking for Felton. However, if you get shot by the other team—which means, Toucans, you're shooting yellow, Iguanas, you're shooting green—you must wait until your medic comes and places a bandage on each shot before you can continue searching. Now, for Toucans, your medic is Rufus, and Iguanas, your medic is Walter. Medics have three lives. This means that they can be shot three different times. Each time they 'die,' they must remain dead for three minutes before they can return to their duty. Okay, you guys have ten minutes to plan and head into the island before you can start using your weapons… oh, and one more thing, Madison, you can't use your horse."
"Aw, why not?"
"I said so," Chris said. "As well, there is a special treat for the winning team and their rescued prisoner." He patted a box that was next to him.
The campers all ran off the dock and split into their teams.
"Here's what we do, we get in there, move fast, and keep moving until we find Felton," Todd said. "We work in pairs. Bex and Jamie, Alex and Gail, Autumn, Ashlynn, and I will be a team of three, which leaves Madison and Rufus. Madison, you have to protect Rufus."
Confession Cam:
(Todd) "I mostly put them together so that no one would have to suffer their complaining about the other.
"Sounds good," Ashlynn said.
"Let's go," Alex said and grabbed Gail's hand, pulling her into the trees.
"This is stupid," Madison said with a frown as everyone but Rufus disappeared.
"You coming Calamity Jane?" Rufus questioned.
"Don't talk to me," she said and started into the forest. "Just follow me."
"Uh… shouldn't I lead while you make sure I don't get shot at?"
"First, Ah have mild twin telepathy with Felton," Madison said. "So Ah lead. Second, if ya'll as perfect as ya'll seem to think, shouldn't ya'll be able to know if someone is shooting at ya'll and be able to dodge?"
"So, you admit I'm perfect."
"Ah said ya'll think ya'll is. Not the same thing."
"What are you doing?" Nessa asked Zak.
"Communicators," Zak said. He tossed one to Erik, one to Nessa, and kept one. "Genevieve and Erik, you go with Walter, and keep him from getting shot. Phoebe and Nessa, you're a team, and Brooke and I will work together. They all have audio now, so if you get shot, call for Walter. Walter's group will travel the middle. Girls, to the west of him, and Brooke and I will be East of him. That way they have a general direction of what way to travel."
They all set out, but after walking a minute, Brooke stopped. "Wait, I'll be right back," she said to Zak and ran back towards camp. When she returned, she had a bag resting at her right hip with the strap across her chest. "In case we get hungry," she said. "And if Greg is tired, we can feed him so he can get some energy."
"And we can lure Felton with us as well," Zak said. "Good thinking."
"Are you sure that this is where they would come by?" Jamie asked.
"Well, they were supposed to cross the stream by the waterfall, right?" Bex asked.
"This is a pretty big island," Jamie said. "If they were around here, they probably could have found their way back by now."
"I say we just follow the stream for a while," Bex said. "It couldn't hurt."
"Okay then," Jamie said and followed Bex, keeping his ears sharp for any sound that would be the Iguanas. His eyes were a bit preoccupied with the bottom of the girl in front of him.
Confession Cam:
(Jamie) "What can I say, it is damn hot, especially in those tiny shorts."
"We have to keep moving," Todd said. "If they are too far behind, then they can't get any shots off at us."
"How about I station myself somewhere around here and assault the Iguanas when they come by?"
"What if the Iggies don't come by?" Ashlynn asked.
"The Iggies?" Todd asked.
"It's cuter," Ashlynn said. "And a bit degrading for them."
Todd shrugged. "She has a point Fall," he said.
"Don't call me that, the names are not interchangeable for people," Autumn said. "And I think you two can move faster without me."
"Well, keep a wide lookout," Todd said. "Or, see if you can track down Walter and take him down a few times."
"That sounds like fun," Autumn said.
"What are you doing, Phoebe?" Nessa asked as the punk girl took a detour not more than ten feet into the forest.
"Grabbing some help," Phoebe said approaching Misty and petting the animal.
"Chris said we couldn't use her," Nessa said.
"No, Chris said Madison couldn't use her," Phoebe reminded Nessa. "Nothing about anyone else." She climbed into the saddle. "Now, get on. When we find Greg, one of us can ride him back on the horse. Easy as pie, right?"
"That is a really good idea," Nessa said pulling herself up behind Phoebe.
Gail and Alex were steadily jogging, looking for any sign of the missing boys.
"What happens if we find Greg first?" Gail asked. "I can't possibly leave him behind to keep looking for Felton."
"Then we take him with us," Alex said. "Plus, chances are they stuck together."
"Think we can go faster?" Gail asked picking up her pace. That was until they heard Pew! Pew! Pew! And three paintballs hit the trees around them. Alex pulled Gail down below the bushes and looked in the direction that the paint ball shots had come from. He managed to see Erik and Genevieve crouching below some bushes. He began shooting, hoping that the paintball would hit them through the bit of brush.
"See them?" Alex asked, shooting as best he could, managing to hit Genevieve's shoulder.
"Yeah," Gail said and began shooting madly in the direction. Within a few seconds, Erik's face was covered in yellow. As well, someone else yelped.
"Who was that?" Alex asked. Gail shrugged, so the two ran to the Iguanas and discovered she had hit Walter as well, as he was half way through bandaging Genevieve's arm. Alex shot her again for certainty of a 'kill' shot.
Suddenly, Autumn came bursting through the bushes. "I heard the shooting. What happened?"
"Look what I killed," Gail said proudly motioning to Walter.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be with Ashlynn and Todd?" Alex asked.
"They move faster without me," Autumn said. "Want me to stay here and take out Walter when he revives?"
"That would be great," Gail said. "Come on, Alex." She grabbed his arm and began running further toward the center of the island.
Bex and Jamie stopped when they heard the sound of hooves. "Oh, what is she doing?" Bex frowned. "She knows she can't be riding that horse." She began in the direction of the hooves, but was surprised to see Nessa and Phoebe. Before she or Jamie could even think to raise their guns, Nessa had shot them both in the chest.
"That was easy enough," Phoebe said.
"All in the name of teamwork," Nessa agreed and they began riding again.
"Come on, how much further can they be?" Todd asked when Ashlynn began to slow down.
"A lot further," Ashlynn said. "This is a rather large island."
"Let's keep moving," Todd said.
However, they hadn't moved more than three more steps before several shots hit their backs. They turned to see Nessa had snuck up on them. A minute later, they heard the clip-clop of Misty and Phoebe riding.
"Four down, five left," Nessa said jumping back on.
"You sneak off," Zak said to Brook. They were crouching behind some rocks and were up against Madison and Rufus, behind a different set of rocks. "I'll draw their fire toward me, and then you hit them."
"Gotcha," Brooke nodded and began to army crawl below the tops of the rocks to get a better angle at the two Toucans.
Zak popped up again, was almost hit, and ducked down again. Madison had just enough of her face above the rocks to see when the Iguanas would pop up. Suddenly she noticed a movement to her left, and saw Brooke taking aim. She threw her body in front of Rufus just as Brooke took fire. Madison took the hit… in slow motion of course. Brooke tried to fire again, but her gun was out of pellets, not surprising seeing as the entire front of the rock was bright green. Rufus smiled and shot Brooke before she could hide again. He then grabbed Madison's hat and placed it on the rock and ducked behind the rock, peeking through some reeds.
"What are ya'll-" Madison began, but Rufus muffled her quickly.
"It's bait," he said quietly. A moment later, as he suspected, Zak popped up again and shot at the hat, only to get shot himself by Rufus a minute later.
"Now fix me up," Madison said.
Rufus stood and began to walk away.
"Where ya'll going?" Madison demanded to know.
"I'm using this chance to get away from you," Rufus said.
"Ah saved ya'lls life," Madison yelled. "Ya'll would have been shot if Ah hadn't a saved ya'll."
Rufus stopped, then rolled his eyes and started back toward her. "And stop talking, or the whole island will know where we are."
"Jerk."
Zak pulled out his communicator. "Erik, Brooke and I have been shot. We need Walter."
Over where they were, Autumn was having fun. When she heard that, she shot Walter again, incase his 'dead time' was over, which it had been, but he was waiting until she stopped paying attention to 'revive.' She then grabbed the communicator. "Sorry, but Walter is currently dead. In fact, his whole platoon is."
Gail and Alex were hiding in some bushes, because they heard some hooves. They had found Todd and Ashlynn and found out that Phoebe and Nessa were riding on Misty.
Gail suddenly spotted them, but before she could fire, Nessa spotted her and shot her. Alex then took several shots, hitting Nessa twice and the horse three times.
"Misty is dead," Alex said as he reloaded behind a tree. "You can't use her anymore."
Phoebe jumped off and hid behind the horse. They began shooting at one another at the same time, and in the end, were both dripping with paint.
Autumn had her eyes trained on Walter, but was getting very bored. When she finally lowered her weapon for a second, Walter grabbed his and took a shot. Seeing this, Autumn took a shot too. They were hit at the same time, and both fell 'dead.'
Over at the campsite, two tired and hungry boys happened to stumble in after following the shore for half a day. When they saw the tents, they began running and went immediately toward the food crate.
"Hello boys," Chris said.
"Ah, we've been lost and you didn't send a rescue party?" Greg yelled.
"Oh, I did," Chris said. "Two."
"When?" Felton asked.
"Today," Chris said. "It's their current challenge to find you and bring you back… but since you made it back yourselves…" he suddenly switched to the speakerphone, "Campers, please return to camp. The challenge is over."
Upon returning to camp, the two teams were both confused. Felton and Greg were already there, eating what was left of the food.
"They found their way back on their own," Chris said.
"So does this mean that this challenge was for nothing, and now we need to do a whole different challenge?" Alex asked.
"Nope," Chris said.
"Wait, who won then?" Erik asked.
"Let's take a look at the tape," Chris said, and the small television was brought up. It showed the two boys seeing the camp and running, Greg clearly ahead of Felton. "It would seem that Greg was the first into the camp, which means, Iguanas have won again finally." He began to think, tapping his chin cleft a few times. "And, Nessa, since you took down more than half of the Toucans, you get to give one of them immunity."
Nessa smiled. "I think it's only fair to give immunity to the one Toucan that didn't get shot, even though we were all gunning for him, Rufus."
All the Toucans shot her a glare, all probably having an idea to vote for him.
"And now, Iguanas, and Greg, for your treat," Chris opened the box and the four sides fell as well. Inside were eight large mugs of a soupy substance that looked like a brown and a cream mixed together. "Root Beer Floats!"
The Iguanas stared at the mugs, then turned to Chris. "You mean you made these before we started the challenge?" Brooke asked.
"I had Chef make them last night," Chris said. "So I wouldn't forget."
"Gee, just what I always wanted," Walter said picking one up. "A warm flat Root Beer Float with melted ice cream." With that, he dumped the whole thing over Chris's head.
The rest of the Iguanas cheered and followed his action.
Confession Cam:
(Walter) "That was one of the best moments of my life." He sighs and leans backwards.
(Brooke) "Even I think he deserved it."
(Greg) He had the soupy root beer float. He takes a sip. "I don't care, it's still food of a type." Drinks more of it.
Chef appears to take over for Chris. "Okay, Maggots! Toucans, go cast your votes. And when I find who is responsible for capturing me in a net and taking some of my cooking tools, you will be dead!"
Confession Cam:
(Todd) "I think that's a challenge."
So, Toucans, please cast your votes for who you'd like to go. Remember, you can't vote for Rufus. So, Todd, Ashlynn, Autumn, Madison, Bex, Jamie, Alex, or Gail. Sorry for the delay, but school started again.
