Well, I got this chapter out quickly. Hope it's to all of your likings. Next one... well, I believe it will be fun.


Drop and Give Me Your Sanity

A shrill whistle broke through the campground waking all eleven sleeping campers. Within a minute, they all were out of their respective tents, dressed and ready for the day's activity. Standing before them was Chef in his army gear.

Nessa sighed in annoyance. "Come on, Chef Hatchet," she said. "We just had that Jeopardy thing yesterday. We can't have a challenge today."

Chef narrowed his eyes. "Did I give you permission to speak, Maggot?" he yelled loudly, not minding the several globs of spit that hit her face. "And it's Master Chief today."

All eleven campers groaned, remembering the challenge from the first season. "When there is war, there is no room for complaining! Now, all of you, drop and give me twenty."

"When we're ready to drop out, do we have a bell to ring or something?" Zak asked.

"You don't quit!" Chef yelled. "If you are unable to complete the tasks I present, you will be sent to the brig." He pointed at the ship. "And you will stay there until all but one of you has failed!"

"Right," Zak nodded and dropped down, doing the twenty push-ups Chef had asked for.

Confession Cam:

(Phoebe) "Aren't we supposed to get three days between challenges?"

(Genevieve) "We are so going to die today."

(Bex) "For some reason, I think that this year, it's going to be worse than last year's challenge."

"Here's how today's challenge is going to work," Chef said. "The last person to survive wins his team immunity."

"What if it's a girl?" Bex asked.

A smile spread onto Chef's lips. "It won't be… The last person from the losing team gains immunity for either him…" he looked Bex, "or herself, or for any teammate… not both. When I give an order, you will perform it. Failure to complete said order sends you to the brig. Failure to even comply, sends you into the middle of the ocean on a flimsy life raft with no paddles or supplies."

Confession Cam:

(Walter) "Well, he has me convinced to do my best."

"You know the rest. Now, task number one, race around the island," Chef said and climbed into a golf cart. "Start now!"

All eleven began running with Chef goading those in back. "Pick up the pace, you four!" Chef yelled at Genevieve, Zak, Brooke, and Walter, who were lagging behind the other seven. "Last to finish goes to the brig without a meal."

Further up, the Toucans were all running together as a group, just behind Nessa and Phoebe. "If we all keep together in this," Todd was saying, "we can probably knock them all out so that we have a couple of us left."

"Maybe," Bex said. "But I wouldn't risk it."

"This is definitely going to warrant a prank, right?" Jamie asked.

"Look, he's going to stay with them," Rufus said nodding his head back to those that were falling even farther behind. "He's not going to feed us anything real. If we pick up the pace enough, we can grab some food before they get back."

Todd narrowed his eyes, then sighed. "He's right."

"Then we go faster?" Madison asked.

"As fast as we can," Rufus said. All five began faster, passing Phoebe and Nessa.

"What are they up to?" Nessa asked.

"Who knows," Phoebe said.

They looked at one another. "Well, I'm not waiting to find out in a surprise," Nessa said. "You with me?"

"Yep."

Confession Cam:

(Jaime) "Todd and Rufus agreed on something… the apocalypse must be coming."

Madison called into the ship when she spotted Brooke. Apparently Brooke had broken from the end of the pack. The four Toucans and two Iguanas gathering food quickly finished grabbing and got off the boat. They decided to put all the food into Madison's tent, as they thought that Chef would least likely check her tent for contraband, and her suitcase could be sealed better than any of the others.

"Is this D&G?" Nessa asked holding up a skirt after Madison dumped her clothes from her case.

"Probably," Madison said. "Why?"

"It's adorable," Nessa said.

"Ya'll can have it," Madison said. "It ain't mah style."

"Really? Thanks," Nessa said and tossed it over her shoulder.

Confession Cam:

(Nessa) "I haven't met Madison's sister, but I can already tell that we would be good pals."

(Madison) "It's not like Ah'd be able to do anything useful here in that thing. Ah really have no idea why mah sister sent it."

All the food was hidden, aside from the bread they were eating by the time that Walter returned to camp.

"How far ahead are you?" Phoebe asked.

"I don't know," he said huffing and puffing. "I wasn't really measuring."

"Here," Todd tossed him a piece of bread. "Guess Gen and Zak will have to do without."

Walter nodded his thanks as he balanced heavy breathing and eating.

Zak arrived at camp just 100 yards before Genevieve, and so she was the first sent to the brig.

"Think you're finished, don't you," Chef said. "Not even close. Everyone, drop and give me as many as you can."

Everyone groaned, and began doing push-ups together. Every time they went down, they had to touch their noses to the ground and every time they came back up, they had to call out the number over Chef's shrill whistle.

"I can't hear you!" Chef yelled when their voices began to quiet down.

"Two hundred-eight!" they all yelled. They all went back down, touched their noses to the ground and pushed back up. "Two hundred-nine!"

And Zak collapsed. Chef grabbed a stick and poked him a few times, getting no reaction. "You, jerk-boy," Chef said pointing at Rufus. "Carry him down to the brig while the rest of you change into swim suits. I want another one of you runts eliminated before sundown, and our fun night challenge."

Confession Cam:

(Zak) "My arms, yeah, they're not going to recover."

(Nessa) "Seriously, Zak? Manny did one thousand nine hundred ninty-nine push-ups. You couldn't do a few more?"

Ten minutes later found the remaining nine contestants swimming in the open ocean while Chef led in a motorboat. There wasn't much talking, as most of them were trying too hard to keep up with Chef without inhaling water. Jamie was in the lead with Bex, Todd, Walter not too far behind. Bringing up the rear were Phoebe, Nessa, and Madison, with the others interspersed. Phoebe was purposely staying back for Nessa's comfort.

Once about a quarter of a mile out, Chef stopped the boat and waited for the campers to reach the boat. "About five minutes later, they all arrived. "Took you maggots long enough. Now five more laps. Anyone who can't finish goes to the brig."

"Like we didn't already know," Walter said and they began swimming again.

The sun was just about gone when Chef pulled back to shore in his motor boat, Madison and Brooke both soaking wet and out of breath riding. They walked to the brig as Chef smiled. He tossed a single can of baked beans at Todd. "Dinner," he said.

"Where are the rest of the cans?" Phoebe asked.

"That's for all of you," Chef said. He turned around and walked onto the ship.

Confession Cam:

(Jamie) "I'm pretty sure he's legally obligated to feed us."

(Bex) "I wasn't going to eat those even if we did have a can opener."

They all gathered around the can. "So, who has a can opener?" Walter asked.

"Screw that," Rufus said and grabbed Madison's case. "They each grabbed a few things, eating quickly knowing that Chef would be gone long.

When he came back out, he was wearing a rain slicker. "Next we have the obstacle course in the rain," Chef said, gesturing to the course that had been set up while they were running, doing push-ups, and swimming.

"It's not raining," Phoebe said.

Chef pulled out a small control and pressed the large red button. Suddenly there was lightning and a hard downpour. "Pageant girl, please demonstrate this course while I tell you about it," Chef said.

Nessa sighed but started out the course.

"First, you will have to go through the tires," Chef said pointing to the ten tires half buried in mud. Nessa was crawling through it, trying not the get sucked in. "Then you will climb up the rock wall," Nessa began climbing, but fell when she grabbed a rock and cut her hand. "Keep climbing," Chef said without turning to face her. Nessa rolled her eyes and began climbing again. Upon reaching the top, Chef continued, "You will then cross the rope monkey bars to the other platform." Nessa was about half way across when she lost her grip and fell into the mud below. "Upon falling, you will return to the rock wall and try again." Nessa frowned, but did as told, getting all the way across the second time. "Climb down the net," Nessa was working her way down, her legs more than once slipping onto large holes in the net. "Once on the ground again, you will have to crawl through the mud under the wire." Nessa got onto her hands and knees, but wasn't far before she shrieked. "Did I mention it was barbed wire?" Nessa sent him a glare, but dropped to her stomach and continued on. "And finally, you will jump from stump to stump until you reach the beginning again." Nessa returned, covered in mud and not looking happy.

Confession Cam:

(Nessa) She's still covered in mud. "I think I hate him more than Chris."

"How many times do we have to do this?" Rufus asked.

"Four hours," Chef said.

They all groaned, but started. Todd was first, followed by Phoebe, Rufus, Jamie, Bex, Walter, and Nessa went last. Some were faster than others, and soon the order had changed so that Nessa, Rufus, and Bex were the three in the lead.

"If you get lapped, it's fifty push-ups," Chef said, "in addition to an extra half hour to the lappee."

Those that were falling behind groaned, but just pushed harder and faster. It was Bex that fell from the monkey bars on her fourteenth lap and couldn't get back up, eliminating her. Phoebe collapsed in the tires on her seventeenth lap and had to be extracted by Walter so that he could continue. And, with only fifteen minutes to go, both of Jamie's legs fell through different holes in the net, and he was too far on either leg to extract himself.

Jamie, Bex, and Phoebe were taken to the brig, and then the four remaining, Rufus, Todd, Walter, and Nessa, were allowed to spend the rest of the night wherever they wanted, so long as it wasn't in their tents. Walter dug a ditch in the ground under a protruding tree root, and was mostly sheltered from the 'rain.' Todd and Nessa leaned next to a large tree that most of the rain wasn't getting through (until they were both sound asleep and the leaves gave through to the heavy rain). And Rufus found solitude in the cave behind the waterfall.

The next morning (just before the sun rose) Todd and Nessa were woken by getting shot several times with paintballs. They woke with a start, not to mention still in tons of pain from the previous nights activities to see Chef standing before them. "Never sleep so out in the open!" Chef yelled, then sounded off an air horn. "In war, you two would have been killed in your sleep should an ambush happen. Both of you, to the brig!" He then said into his megaphone. "All remaining maggots report to the beach, this minute."

Within a minute, both Walter and Rufus had arrived and watched at Todd and Nessa boarded the boat that contained the brig.

"What happened to them?" Rufus asked.

"Bad choice of beds," Chef said. "And, now we're down to our final two. We're going to settle this real fast." Chef pointed to a rope that lay on the ground. There were two lines marked by ribbons in the sand, and a ribbon on the middle of the rope. "A good old, Tug-O-War. Take your marks."

Confession Cam:

(Rufus) "Seriously?" He flexes his arms. "There's no chance that Walter can beat this."

(Walter) "The one physical activity where having a little extra weight can actually help."

Both boys ran to the line and grabbed the rope. "Get set," they both tightened their grips and were ready to pull. "Go!"

In the first second, the ribbon went about a foot toward Rufus and Walter had to grab his balance. But, once he had his grip on the rope and his feet planted, he used the weight of his whole body and took a step back. He was throwing all his weight into it, and with every step he took, he gained a bit. Within two minutes, Rufus had lost the foot he had gained in the first second, and within ten minutes, Walter only had an inch to go. Walter retightened his grip, dug his feet into the sand, and pulled with all his might. He fell onto his back, but Rufus was pulled forward and landed face first in the wet sand.

Chef blew his whistle and pulled Walter to his feet. "Good job, soldier," he said and slapped him hard on the back. "I'm proud of you."

Walter blinked, and then he actually smiled. "Thanks."

Chef hollered. "Failed soldiers, get out here to congratulate the large one on taking home the victory!"

The other campers crawled out of the boat and were all surprised to find that Walter was the one standing. "Okay, LOSERS!" Chef yelled at the Howling Toucans. "Cast your votes and meet at the pit in ten."

The Toucans all looked surprised. "And remember, Jerk-Boy got himself immunity."

Confession Cam:

(Bex) "So not cool that Rufus can't be voted off."

(Todd) "I swear, if he gets immunity one more time… it's no secret that he bought his way onto the game,"

When they had gathered, they were surprised when none other than Gwen was there with the plate of marshmallows. "As the winner of Chef's challenge last year, he thought it was only appropriate that I hand out the marshmallows today," she said. "I'm not going to bore you with the rules that you all know." She pulled out a card. "And today, marshmallows go to Rufus," she tossed him the first. "Todd. Jamie… and," she looked up to see the two girls look at one another. "Bex."

Madison sighed and looked down. "Ya'll can keep the food in my suitcase," she said.

"Actually, we finished that all off last night," Todd said.

"Well, kick some Iggy butt for me, will ya'll?"

Rufus smirked at her. "You bet we will."

"Bye, ya'll." With that, she walked to the Dock of Shame, whistled, and jumped on Misty when the horse appeared, and rode off on the Boat of Losers.

Todd approached Brooke and took a seat next to her on the beach. "Look, Brooke, about the other night…" he began.

Brooke kept her eyes focused on her book and her cheeks flushed. "Um… yeah?"

"Look, I know that the time I tried to kiss you might have been a bit… much," he said. "But, the other night, I just wanted to ask for a chance… that's all. But, if you would rather I stay away from you… could you just tell me and get it over with?"

Brooke looked at him. "It's not that," she said. "I'm, just, I get nervous."

Todd stared at her. "Well, getting shot down twice by you hasn't made talking to you any easier, Brooke," he said. "All I am asking for is a chance. Just, I want to spend time with you alone…" He took a deep breath. "I like you. I really like you."

Brooke bit her lip. "Just, spend a little time together?"

"As little as an hour if that's what you'd like," Todd said.

Brooke nodded. "I think I'd like that," she said.

Todd smiled. "Cool… so, what do you want to do?"