No morning dawned on the day of the challenge for the final six. Winds howled across the campground, thunder pealed in the distance, and stormclouds loomed so heavy overhead that night had never lost its dark hold on the world. The shutters hammered against the flimsy siding of the lodge, the windows rattling in their frames. The roar of water crashing on the roof was unceasing, drowning out the humdrum conversations over breakfast, except when spoken clearly by those huddled close together.
The door snapped open and a straggler shambled in. Ezekiel had to force the whole thing shut with his body, fighting against the ripping gusts of wind that followed him inside. He was soaked from head to toe. Despite his best efforts to wring the water out of his sweater, he was still dripping all the way to the table, though it could hardly be heard over the downpour outside.
He took a seat next to Beth and across from Gwen. They'd already started nibbling at the plates of what were allegedly waffles, and Ezekiel took a few tentative bites. It sapped the moisture from his mouth, and he swore he tasted sawdust somewhere in there. He only kept eating because it was better than starving.
"Think we'll do the challenge today?" He asked, trying to break the dreadful atmosphere with some conversation.
"We better not." Gwen grumbled. "Its a mess out there."
At the other table Courtney caught wind of their conversation. "Good luck with that. They probably have a schedule for production they have to keep."
"Please. They wouldn't just march us out there in the rain." Heather scoffed. "We're valuable. We could get ammonia from getting cold."
"It's pneumonia." Courtney corrected.
"And I'd rather not have it, thank you." Gwen said.
"Cheer up Gwen." Beth said. "They'll probably just move the challenge to later, when it clears up. That'll give us lots of time for sketch practice."
"And reading right?" Ezekiel asked.
Beth laughed and gave him a one-armed hug. "Oh totally."
Though she no longer openly admonished him, Gwen could only muster a thin lipped smile for her friend's homeschooled buddy. A well-timed confessional from yesterday shed some light on Gwen's feelings, added to this moment in the final show to conveniently clarify the situation to the viewers.
"I just don't get what she sees in him." Gwen sighed. "I've tried to be open minded, but all I've seen so far is that he's annoying, smelly, and comes off as so desperate. The worst part is that he's so pathetic I'd feel bad telling him off in front of Beth. Guess I just gotta wait for him to say something dumb enough to get kicked again. Then he won't be my problem anymore."
Beth's assessment of the situation came in another confessional, a whole day apart from Gwen's yet placed side by side with hers to amplify the dramatic irony. "I really think I'm making progress getting them to warm up to each other." She said. "Can you imagine if we actually formed an alliance and went to the final three? The look on Heather's face would be priceless."
Yet another confessional rolled to showcase Heather's perspective on recent events and the strategic situation. "Don't think I don't know what's going on between fatty McBraceface and homeschool." She said. "They may be playing their little friends act so they don't gross out gothy or whatever, but those two are canoodling like there's no tomorrow when nobody's looking. Hello, gossip magazine?" Heather held her hand to her ear in a mocking imitation of a phone call. "Yeah I'd like to report the next teen pregnancy scandal. Yuck! Anyways, couples are just stronger alliances, so I've gotta make sure they don't get any further."
Rounding out the confessionals was Geoff, who looked a bit down from his usual upbeat personality. "Man, I thought getting to the Final Six would be like one big party, but everyone's kinda a downer. Courtney's cool, I'd never diss my girl Bridgette's bestie, but she still ain't no party animal. And Heather and Gwen? Talk about buzzkills. Zeke's just kinda clueless, but I think he's got some serious potential partytude. The biggest thing that's keeping us down though? This weather? Everyone's all cold and tired and it's killing the vibe."
All told it was a bleak morning that everyone just wanted to get through with as little trouble as possible. Small talk continued, but never went anywhere. Somehow, against all reason, they managed to finish their food, or at least eat enough of it to quiet the aching of their stomachs.
Then, the roar on the roof began to abate into a steady drumming, before going silent altogether. The foreboding darkness gave way to light, peeking through the shuttered windows.
"Did it get quiet in here?" Courtney asked.
"I think it stopped raining eh." Ezekiel said.
"Well let's get back to the cabins before Chris realizes it and drags us into some insane challenge." Heather said.
The sentiment resonated with the others, who all got up to follow her to the front door. Upon opening it, they were greeted with the first good look at the campgrounds since the thunderstorm had rolled in last evening. Lit by the speckles of sunlight filtering down through parting rainclouds, it was a sight to behold.
The water had risen to claim vast swaths of the camp under its depths, creating pools meters deep and stretching across great tracts of what had once been dry land. Paths across the campground were narrow and scarce, threads of high ground winding between the newly formed waterways.
It was this waterlogged marshland that the campers traversed to get back to the relative safety and warmth of the cabins. Halfway there, their eyes were pulled skywards by the beating of a helicopter's rotor. A small red chopper roared feet over their heads, kicking up the water and putting them through the rainstorm all over again as it buzzed the campgrounds.
"What a dick!" Heather snapped.
"Is that Chris up there?" Gwen asked as she peered up at the aircraft, circling around the camp for another pass.
"How did he get up there so fast?" Courtney asked.
As the helicopter swept past again, a loudspeaker on the bottom boomed out Chris's announcement from up high.
"Welcome back to Total Drama Island!" He said, more for the audience that would eventually watch it than the campers who, with a singular exception, had never left the island yet.
"Over the past weeks we've watched sixteen campers push themselves to the limit, and then get their butts kicked off the island by their fellow campers. Sucks to be them. Ezekiel, Eva, Duncan, Justin, Izzy, Trent, Tyler, Cody, Leshawna, Sadie, Harold, DJ- get better soon, my man- Bridgette, Trent again, Owen, Katie, Lindsay, aaaaaaaaaand Noah!"
It was a simple but poignant reminder of how many friends, rivals, even lovers had departed to make way for all these six to arrive here. Once the island had been home to a whole cohort of teens. The atmosphere had been laid back and friendly, nobody was yet thinking of strategy. Most of them arrived not knowing it would even be an elimination game, expecting a swanky talent show that would let them hang out together all summer.
Now it was a lonely place, where trust was in short supply, and all the survivors had a plan to win. There was still friendship to be sure, but it was restricted to those who had already grown to trust each other. They watched as the helicopter made one more circle, then landed on the high ground near the bonfire. Chris descended down to the campgrounds, a pair of interns leading ahead of him to make sure the ground was solid. Where he was forced to cross water, they laid down wood boards to ensure their host did not sully his designer tennis shoes or name brand cargo pants. Such were the perks of status.
"Only six campers remain." Chris said as he finally arrived to them in front of the cabins. "After two, going on three, months of bugs, gross food, and even grosser bathrooms, our final six are about thiiiiiis close to losing it."
Obviously, this was a bit of exaggeration for the sake of the cameras. If they were close to anything, it was collapsing of exhaustion, not some psychotic breakdown. Though, given the right circumstances, for tenser personalities like Heather and Courtney it could very well be both. Most of them just wanted to sleep in a bug-free bed or eat real food again.
"We strove to come up with the best ways to help the campers de-stress," Chris explained, his expression turning uncomfortably excited about the next couple words. "Then decided it would be way more fun to handcuff them together, and see if we couldn't push them over the edge."
From behind his back, he produced a pair of handcuffs, dangling them at the campers.
"Okay, which one of you deviant perverts did he get that from?" Heather asked.
"Nah, this is all for today's challenge." Chris explained. "I call it the Tri-Armed Triathlon."
"Tri-armed?" Zeke echoed. "Like, three arms?"
"Right you are my homeschooled amigo." Chris said. "Three legs in a race, three teams of two, three arms per team."
"Have you met these people?" Heather crossed her arms, guarding her very cuffable wrists defensively. "I am not being chained to any of them."
"Winning team gets invincibility for both members."
That quickly silenced any more protests, and very quickly everyone looked a lot more interested in what was in store for them.
"When I call you up, come and get cuffed to your partner." Chris continued. "Courtney, Heather."
The two most powerful personalities on the island stared each other down. Sizing each other up, they looked for weakness in their opponent. Part of it was pure instinct on Heather's part. She logically knew that she would need to cooperate with Courtney if she wanted to win the challenge and stay safe tonight. But Courtney was exactly the sort of person who she would view as a rival at home, the sort that could encroach on the power she held over people, and it made Heather bristle.
"You better not try to push me around like you did with your alliance." Courtney warned.
"Please." Heather shot back, reflexively. "If you're half as useless as they were, I won't have a choice."
"As if." Courtney said. "I'll be the one carrying your sorry ass past the finish line."
"Ladies, please." Chris interjected. "You'll have plenty of time to fight after you're chained together for the rest of the challenge. Now get up here."
Reluctantly they both stepped forward, and Chris slapped the handcuffs on them as they glared daggers at one another. The host looked delighted by their animosity, and he'd most certainly be watching them closely for a big dramatic blowup that he could narrate.
"Next up, Geoff and Beth." Chris announced.
Unlike the last pair, neither of those two had any ill will against each other. If anything, Beth looked bizarrely excited, and ran up to Chris and extended her hand to be cuffed. A confessional she later recorded helped clarify it.
"Okay, I might have gotten a teensy tiny bit too excited! But can you blame me?" Beth asked the camera rhetorically. "I got to be chained to a hot guy for the whole day! I mean sure, he already has Bridgette and totally isn't into me, but cute's cute, yeah? I wonder if Zeke will get jealous and try to make a move?" Her face turned cherry red at that, and she fanned herself with her hand lightly. "Oh Beth, you naughty girl. Playing boys off each other like that. I never realized I could be such a vixen."
Whether or not Beth's lurid fantasies were in line with reality was anyone's guess, but Geoff didn't seem to notice anything odd as he stepped forth and put his arm out. They were chained together, and he simply gave a thumbs up with his free hand.
"Cool beans brah."
"And lastly." Chris said, looking at the only two unchained contestants left. Rather than say it, he simply let Gwen and Ezekiel realize they were the last ones, and that they'd be each other's partner for the day.
It dawned on them at about the same moment. Gwen forced a smile onto her face for Beth's sake, while Ezekiel had no such pretense and wore his anxieties clearly on his face. Again, a confessional would be shown to clarify his thoughts, and again it came from after the challenge had already ended, thus had be carefully edited to avoid spoilering the outcome for the audience.
"When I saw I was doing this with Gwen, man that freaked me out at first. She gives everyone a cold shoulder. We've kinda hung out together, but it always felt more like she was hanging out with Beth and just, letting me exist around her. I knew I had to make a good impression."
In the moment he kept those concerns to himself, and was mostly quiet going up to be handcuffed. Gwen turned around and gave a strained thumbs up to Beth.
"Well I guess you wanted us to hang out more." Gwen said.
"Woohoo! My besties get to hang for the whole day!" Beth clapped.
Three teams, with three arms each, now stood before Chris awaiting their instructions. The host took his time with that, soaking up the raw tension that was Courtney and Heather's team, and also keeping an eye on Gwen and Ezekiel hoping for some top tier embarrassment from the homeschool and the prickly goth. There was also Beth and Geoff. They existed, and Chris did not have high hopes for their drama making potential. Even a great host like him didn't win them all.
"Now, for your challenge you'll be running a Triathlon, a race in three parts." Chris explained. "For the first leg of the race, you'll hop in your boats and paddle down to Boney Island. There are three buoys you'll need to tag on the way. You'll have a can of spray paint in each of your boats to mark the buoys, and your race isn't finished until you've tagged all three."
"Wait, a triathlon is supposed to have cycling, not boats." Courtney said.
"These boats have pedals, like a bike." Chris replied. "Which is close enough, and brings us to the second leg of the race. Once you've tagged the buoys, race to the cove at the South end of Boney Island and board the shipwreck. First one there gets an advantage in the swimming part of the triathlon. The twist is, you'll be swimming underwater."
"Like scuba diving?" Geoff asked.
"Yes my man, scuba diving. We've littered the inside of that old steam ship with wooden heads, which look a lot like the actual hollow heads of your former castmates. Be the first to bring three back to the surface, and you'll get a head start in the foot race to the finish line. You'll cross Boney Island again, this time collecting three flags along your route. First team to collect all three flags wins the race and invincibility. Any questions?"
Nobody could think of any. "Let's get this over with." Gwen grumbled. Not a question, but pretty indicative of the general mood everyone had about the challenge. Except for Geoff, who looked pumped.
"Yooooo, Boney Island! I can't wait to be back. I wonder if Sid's still there with her kiddo. Maybe she'll remember us!"
"It's a sloth, they probably don't remember what they had for breakfast this morning." Courtney rolled her eyes.
"Only one way to find out." Geoff shrugged. "Come on dudes, let's go."
If nothing else, Geoff's enthusiasm made everyone else look more grumpy by comparison. So maybe he was contributing a net positive towards the drama, in his own way. They headed down to the docks, where the boats were tied off waiting for them. Each was colored distinctly to help the audience tell who was who in the wide shots- blue, red and green. The boats had two seats side by side, with a compartment in the floor for storage and pedals on both sides. Between the seats was a joystick that controlled the boat's rudder for steering. The raised water level thankfully didn't apply to the whole lake- that would imply floodwaters high enough to claim Toronto. Gwen knew they would never be that fortunate.
Courtney and Heather both tried to be the first into their boat, nearly tripping over each other and turning the boat over in the process.
"Gah watch it, you're gonna tip it!" Courtney said.
"If anyone is capsizing this boat it's your fat ass." Heather elbowed Courtney to get ahead of her and take her seat. Courtney stumbled in after her head first, twisting herself back into an upright position. Inside the boat were a couple of supplies, including the promised spray paint cans, and also a map, compass, and waterproof tarp.
The other teams got into their boats without issue. Ezekiel let Gwen go first, holding onto the boat with his free hand to help keep it from rocking while she stepped in. She glowered at him with a sideways glance. Oh no. Had he been too polite, and insulted her in the process? She didn't say anything about it. That meant it wasn't so bad right? Or did that mean it was so bad there were no words to describe it. He followed her into the boat, puzzling over how to read her.
Likewise, Geoff helped Beth into the boat first, though she was clearly much happier about it than Gwen. As she settled in however, something caught her eye over the side of the boat. She glanced down and saw a large black shape pass beneath the hull in the murky water. It brushed against their keel and made the boat rock a little, causing Beth to yelp in surprise.
"What's the matter little dudette? First time in a boat before?" He asked.
"Something's in the water." She squeaked.
"Woah really?" Geoff leaned over to see if he could spot it. "Lemme see! Where's it at?"
Beth pointed in the direction it swam off, but there was nothing but water there to see when Geoff looked that way.
"What's she freaking out about now?" Heather asked from the other boat.
"Said there's some big thing in the water." Geoff said.
Heather turned pale, looking away to hide her anxiety. "Probably nothing." She said. "Just shut up and forget about it."
With everyone in their boats, the interns released the water craft from their moorings. The boats were towed out by a small motorboat to a starting line just beyond the dock. Chris stood at the end of said dock with a starter pistol in hand.
As they sat waiting for the challenge to start, Ezekiel unfolded the map in his lap and started to read it. Before he could get his bearings however, Gwen pulled it out of his hands.
"I got this."
"Huh. Uh, okay…do you like reading maps or-"
"No. It's just uh…you see…I've been to Boney Island so I know how to get us there better."
"Oh that makes sense eh." Ezekiel nodded. "You know I'm pretty good at reading a map if you need help."
"Just focus on making the boat go forward okay?"
"Yes ma'am."
Going over the map, she'd find the three buoys lying along their prescribed route to Boney Island, set in a zig-zag pattern. It looked deceptively simple, and Gwen wondered what hidden treachery might lie ahead. Would it be sea mines, crocodiles or icebergs? The water ahead looked no more treacherous than it did last time they crossed, save for the gathering stormclouds. Gwen figured she'd just have to wait and see.
"On your marks! Get set! Go!" Chris fired off the starter pistol
The boats lurched off the starting line, and immediately the contestants ran headfirst into the problems of tri-armed paddle boat operations. The pedals that propelled the boat forward were linked together, requiring coordinated motion of both partners or else they would rapidly bind up and drag. The rudder being in the center meant it had to be operated by the combined third arm shared by two campers, and any disagreement about what that third arm was doing would result in an erratic course.
All this together made the start of the race a total pandemonium. Boats jolted forwards and stopped at irregular intervals. Heather and Courtney fought for control of the joystick, causing their boat to swerve wildly back and forth. They came careening towards Ezekiel and Gwen, who had to dodge out of the way to avoid being ran down.
"Out of our way!" Heather yelled.
"If you stopped yanking us around they wouldn't be in our way!" Courtney
"Your goody-two-shoes fake niceness act is only going to slow us down! We need to crush anyone in our way."
"That attitude is exactly why you no longer have an alliance."
"I didn't need them anyways. They were just slowing me down."
Just then Geoff and Beth hit a stride in their coordination, pulling ahead of their floundering competition. Heather was flabbergasted as they zoomed right past her boat, which was still haplessly spinning because Courtney wouldn't give up the rudder.
"They're getting ahead of us! We need to be on the same page, and work as a team." Courtney said. That was so typical of her, to blame others when it was her own stubbornness. She always had to be in charge of everything and show off how much of a great leader she was, but the minute things went sideways, it was all everyone else's fault.
What Heather wanted was to hold her ground against Courtney, fighting tooth and nail to preserve her dignity in the face of stupid belligerence. What Heather needed, however, was to stay in the game. Much as it made her skin crawl, staying in Courtney's good graces was possibly the only way for her to do so.
She had been here before too. Having to ingratiate herself to all kinds of well-established, self-absorbed narcissists was part of her rise to popularity. Appear as a harmless lackey, say what they wanted to hear, melt into their friend circle. Then slowly subvert them, spread rumors, chip away at their self-esteem through indirect avenues, gaslight them if necessary. Once they had a big falling out with their posse, take over and assume their old throne. Rinse, lather, repeat, until there was nobody else above her left to climb over, no further rungs to grab on the ladder to success.
If there was any other way, she would have taken it. After firmly establishing herself as her school's regent, she made a vow that she would never again grovel before anyone else. She would have to break that vow to survive. There was no way Beth would ever accept her gracious offer to rejoin her alliance, as magnanimous as it was to even put that on the table at all. Extending that to Gwen was out of the question, much less that ugly homeschooled troll. At least Geoff and Courtney were the kind of people who were popular enough to be worth brown-nosing to back home. It was a small comfort, but it was enough to give Heather the strength she needed to get go of the rudder stick, put her hands in her lap, and give Courtney her best fake apology face.
"I'm sorry, you're right." Heather said. "Go ahead, you're in charge."
Courtney was speechless at first. "Are you pulling my leg?" She asked in disbelief.
"No, I want to win." Heather replied, this time a bit more bluntly. "I don't like you, you don't like me. But we both hate losing, and right now we are seriously losing. So how about we stop screwing around and get back to winning?"
Courtney peered at Heather, as if she could ever hope to uncover the masterful deception being laid before her. She glanced out towards the water and the other teams outpacing them, and whatever reservations she had vanished afterwards.
"Fine. Just keep pedaling and let me steer. We go on three, okay?" She said.
"As you wish." Heather nodded.
"One, two, three."
The water churned beneath them as they began peddling ahead. It took a lot of fortitude to retain her composure while surrendering authority to Courtney, but Heather beared it all with a smile on her face.
They were catching up with Geoff and Beth quickly, but they weren't the only ones. Gwen and Ezekiel were ahead of them now too, but not by much, and both were sprinting towards the leaders intent on seizing back the initiative.
Beth glanced her her shoulder, spotting the two boats closing fast. "Think we should speed up?" She asked. "They're getting pretty close."
"Nah, we just gotta chill and pace ourselves." Geoff shook his head. "Remember, it's a long boat ride all the way out to Boney Island. We're gonna be here a while."
"Can we at least block or something? We can't just let them get ahead!" Beth insisted.
"Sure thing homie." Geoff laughed. "I love me some rockin bumper boats."
They were about to get plenty of that, with Ezekiel and Gwen nearly about to pass them.
While Courtney and Heather could hardly go a minute without bickering over something, Gwen and Ezekiel carried on without many words at all. Too few, for Ezekiel's liking. It was hard to judge how well he was doing when Gwen was so tight lipped and standoffish, but he didn't dare ask for fear of coming across worse.
He didn't have much time to think about it however, as they were just about ready to pass Beth and Geoff. They tried to duck around to the right to pass, but Beth spotted and called them out, and the boat came swerving towards them to block their advanced. Ezekiel jerked the rudder hard over and backed off, trying to drop back and come back again on the left, but Geoff suddenly reversed his pedals, causing their boat to skid back and Zeke to run right into their rear.
"Ow!" Gwen winced as she was jolted by the impact. "Watch where you're going."
"They ran into me eh." He protested, shaking his fist at them as he resumed peddling. "Hey, no need to be rude! There's enough water for everyone."
"Yeah, and none of the water in front of us is for you." Beth shouted back, sticking her tongue out at them from over the side of the boat.
"Oh, it's gonna be like that huh?" Gwen smirked.
"Haha that's Beth alright." Ezekiel nodded. "She's pretty fierce, not gonna let us have it easy."
They weren't the only ones competing to get ahead anymore either. Courtney and Heather had caught up now and were trying to pass on the left, leaving a gap of a few feet in case they tried to swerve into them. But Beth had an idea how to deal with that. She brought the boat over towards them slowly enough not to alarm them, then right as they were pulling lead, hooked the front of their boat with the crowbar. She gave it a hard yank, and the front spun around, stopping them dead in their tracks.
"Hey, no fair! Crowbars were not sanctioned as part of this challenge!" Courtney protested as they regained control of their boat.
"Gee, I'm sure Chris will care so much." Heather rolled her eyes. "You should file a report. No, a whole lawsuit."
Then just to add injury to insult, Gwen rammed them in the side, then darted off.
"Haha suck it Heather!" Gwen jeered at her as they pulled ahead. "Sorry Courtney, couldn't miss the chance to smack her around a little."
"Oh trust me, I'm tempted to do some smacking myself." Courtney replied back.
The campers were so engaged in their bumper boats they almost passed the first buoy without realizing it. Almost everyone spotted the big, yellow bobbing thing at nearly the same time, and all at a very short distance. They converged on it like moths around a flame, and as Heather took her spray can to mark it, she couldn't help but take a little revenge against Gwen by blasting some in her direction.
"The hell is your problem? Watch it, you could get that in my eyes!" Gwen said as she shielded her face.
"What's the matter gothy? I thought you loved painting yourself like a clown." Heather laughed.
"Heather!" Courtney snapped, grabbing the can out of her hand and using it to mark the buoy. "I will not have our team associated with such unsportsmanlike conduct! Back off!"
"Pft, whatever." Heather sat down as they pulled away. "You know she totally deserved it."
On their way to the next buoy, things got even worse. While they were so focused on their opponents on the water, the campers had failed to notice the ominous black cloud bank lumbering towards their position, or the hazy column of rain below it. It only occurred to Gwen to look up when a few droplets plopped onto her map.
"Oh crud." Gwen started scrambling through the contents of the stowage box at her feet. "Crap. Zeke, we need something to cover the map or it's gonna be mush once we get there."
He looked up and saw the incoming mess they were about to sail into, and frantically began searching the matching compartment on his side of the boat. Which, was a hell of a hard thing to do one handed while peddling a boat.
"Here, try this!" He said, tossing her a small tarp from inside the boat.
Gwen managed to unfold it and duck under it's shelter just as they passed into the rainstorm. The tarp was heavy and waterproof and did a good job protecting their map, but it also left her completely blind to the outside world unless she poked her head back out.
"Just keep heading to where you last saw the buoy." Gwen told him. "I'll make sure you're going the right way."
"Uhuh! Yeah." Ezekiel replied. He covered his eyes to try and see through the sudden pouring rain, the buoy ahead now a barely visible yellow splotch that he could only sort of make out against the downpour.
From under her cover, Gwen gave him corrections via reading the compass, helping him hold steady despite the winds trying to push him off course. For a guy that she'd once assumed to be an irredeemable sexist, he sure was taking directions from a girl in stride. They made it to the second buoy, and this time none of the other boats were in sight. Whether they had got their first, were still trying to find it, or had gotten lost completely, Gwen could only guess. It wasn't her problem, she tossed Zeke the spray can and they made their mark.
The third buoy went much the same, with Gwen able to guide Zeke onto it despite poor visibility. Then they headed for Boney island itself, using their last known position at the third buoy to estimate the course they needed.
The rain finally let up as they arrived at the Southern shore. As the finish line came into view, so did the old passenger ferry. The bow of the ship was dug into the shore, while the aft section had sunk into the bay several feet, the water lapping at the rotted wood of the first deck. Up close, it looked alarmingly dangerous to even walk on. The pilothouse had collapsed into a heap of rubble, and the single, tall funnel on the stern had crashed down onto the deck.
"They're not seriously gonna make us get on that death trap." Gwen shook her head.
"Doesn't look so bad eh." Ezekiel said. "I've seen people living in trailers that looked worse."
"What a glowing endorsement." Gwen rolled her eyes.
As they got closer to shore, they saw that the camera crews weren't the only people there waiting for them. Geoff and Beth had already landed, and after celebrating their victory climbed a small flight of stairs onto the main deck of the steamer.
Gwen and Ezekiel beached their boat right next to Beth and Geoff's. Climbing out was a tricky affair, that ended with Ezekiel essentially following Gwen out her side. Evidence of the great deluge that had hammered Wawanakwa was plentiful here on Boney Island as well. What had once been a narrow trickle of water across the beach was now a miniature river delta, a great mass of water cutting several feet into the sand in a wide fan as it drained into the lake.
As they crossed the finish line, Heather and Courtney landed behind them, following them across to a disappointing last place.
"See, this all would have been avoided if you just put me in charge to start." Heather said.
"Don't make me regret giving you the chance." Courtney warned as they climbed into the lift.
Once aboard the wreck they got a good look at just how treacherous it was. At first glance the ship looked surprisingly intact. Winds and waves had battered down much of the superstructure into rubble, but the hull, at least the part of it buried in the mud and sand on the shore, was surprisingly whole, providing a good solid deck to stand on. As one went further towards the back however, that became increasingly less the case.
There is no greater destructive force in the world than moving water, and time. Though the great lakes to which Lake Wawanakwa was adjacent were not quite as brutal as the churning tides of the mighty oceans, they had decades to take their toll on the old wreck. Holes opened up in the deck large enough to swallow a man, into inky black depths of the hull. Jagged pieces of the steel framework shot up at menacing angles, threatening deadly impalement to any who had the misfortune to fall on them.
On the safer, more solid forward end of the ship, the staging area for the dive awaited them. Several pieces of expensive looking equipment sat on fold-out tables, with lots of gauges, dials and switches on them. Several oxygen tanks sat piled up against the gunwales, and on a rack nearby three scuba diving suits were hung up.
"Congratulations on reaching the second part of the race." Chris said. "Team Biff came in first, so they'll be getting the advantage this round. But this isn't an ordinary scuba dive, so let me explain the twists. There are several, and I'm pretty proud of all of them."
By now everyone knew that could mean nothing good. The host continued.
"One partner in each team will take the plunge into this rusty old wreck. The other member of each team will be on deck with a radio, map, and the cable reel for the oxygen tanks. They will be the diver's guides. You must feed your diver enough line for them to keep swimming, but give them too much, and it might tangle. Best case scenario, that means you lose time, and potentially the challenge. Worst case scenario, that could be deadly."
"The guides will also get a map of the interior of the ship. You can use this to help your diver keep their bearings, or to mess with them and turn them around if they start to get on your nerves. Haha."
"Wait, diving?" Gwen asked, a cold bead of sweat running down her forehead. "Into this death trap? It's pretty much a big rusty coffin!"
"Very serious." Chris replied, his lips curling upwards menacingly. "In fact, you gave me the idea."
"So what exactly are we diving for?" Geoff asked. "Treasure?"
"Of a sort." Chris replied. "We've filled the interior of this big old hulk with wooden busts of your former castmates. You'll find them in the corridors and cabins. Be the first team to bring three up, and you win. But, there's a catch. You can't just bring up any three heads. One head must be someone from the guide's own team who was eliminated before the merge, while the other must be from the opposing team, also from before the merge. Finally, the last head must be of someone from the guide's team who was kicked off after the merge. Which means the guides will have to talk to their divers and identify who they found to make sure they're bringing up a valid head."
"So how do we uh…decide who's the diver?" Gwen asked, her voice cracking a little despite her best attempts to sound calm about this. "Do we draw straws or?"
"No need!" Chris said. "We've already done the work of pre-selecting diver and guide pairings to make this nice and easy for you guys. You're welcome. Beth, Gwen, and Heather, you're divers! The rest of you are guides."
Gwen tensed up, trying to keep her expression calm. She told herself everything would be fine. Even though she was going into a deep, dark place, where she could easily drown or get lost. Ezekiel had probably never even seen a scuba tank, much less worked with one, but it was okay, she'd do just great.
As the interns uncuffed them and led them to the dive suits, Gwen's hands were clammy and trembling. Stripping out of her normal clothes, she climbed into the black rubber garment, with an intern helping her with the zipper on the back. The helmet was a large, domed type that had a microphone in it, and a big glass visor that gave her decent vision despite how cumbersome it was. Thankfully, it also had a light. She wouldn't be totally blind and trapped. Just mostly blind, and only trapped if the line snapped.
"You okay?" Ezekiel asked.
"I'm fine!" She snapped.
"Ugh well I'm not." Heather said, the helmet doing surprisingly little to muffle the sharpness off her complaints. "This thing totally itches, and this stupid heavy helmet is giving me neck pains."
"Pain in the neck for a pain in the neck." Beth snickered. Gwen gave her a high five for that one, letting out a tense little chuckle.
"That's the truth."
The three divers presented themselves to Chris. The suits were unflattering and uncomfortable, and Chris was pleased to see that nobody seemed to be enjoying them.
"Good. Now, before we begin, Team Biff gets their reward." Chris went to the staging area and picked up some sort of metal cylinder. It was about the size of a microwave, but completely cylindrical and with a pair of handles on the middle. He handed it to Beth, who struggled at first with the weight, as it was quite bulky.
"What is it?" She asked, turning it over and inspecting it. The propeller inside a safety cage at one end was her first hint.
"That there is what they call in the scuba business, a diver propulsion vehicle, or DPV. Some people call them sea scooters." Chris pointed to a red button on each of the handles. "Press these down and this baby will pull you through the water. No need to tire yourself out with swimming, just let the scooter do the work."
Beth gave one of the buttons a tentative tap with her finger. The device whirred and vibrated, and the propeller on the end spun in its cage. She quickly let off the button, guessing it was battery powered and not wanting to waste what seemed like an amazing advantage.
"Now, we have professional rescue divers on standby, and calling one up won't automatically disqualify you from the challenge, so do not hesitate to ask for help if you need it." Chris told them. "But it will make you look like a huge chicken crybaby. You will be preserved, but your dignity sure won't be. Haha."
Each team was led to a different starting point so the air lines wouldn't get tangled. Gwen's starting point would be the stern, right beneath the crumpled funnel. This far back the water lapped at her diving fins as she stood at the edge of a gaping hole in the deck. It loomed before her like the open jaws of a monster, complete with snaggle-teeth in the form of rusty spikes lining the edge.
For the sake of pretending to care about safety the edge was lined with a tarp as they prepared to go. This gave her a way to get in and out without being stabbed to death, hypothetically. The oxygen tanks and cable reel were parked next to the opening, and Ezekiel was handed his walkie talkie.
"Can you hear me eh?" He asked into the device.
"Unfortunately." Gwen muttered.
"Uh, come again?" He radioed back. "You sound kinda garbled eh."
"Uh, loud and clear." She replied much louder the second time.
"Oh. Good." Ezekiel gave her a thumbs up, clipping the radio onto one of his belt loops. He inspected the oxygen tanks, both of which read as completely full, and gave the line a look over for any bends or kinks.
Seeing that it was all in good order, and the interns agreeing that it was such, they hooked the line into the plug at the back of Gwen's helmet, but they didn't turn it on yet. For a couple minutes they just stood there, waiting for their next cue. The longer Gwen went like this the more her neck started to ache. Heather was right, this helmet was stupid heavy.
"Attention campers!" Chris's voice boomed over the ship via loudspeaker. "Your challenge begins in five! Four! Three! Two! One! Dive, dive!"
The interns opened the oxygen tanks, and Gwen looked down into the void below. She froze, her legs turning into lead. She told herself it was going to be alright. They were near the surface, there would probably be enough light. If it wasn't blocked out by all the mud in the nasty lake water. And the further she went into the ship, the lss that would be the case. The more trapped she would be if things went wrong.
"Uh, you okay?" Zeke asked as she stood there like a statue.
It jolted her awake. "Y-yeah." She lied. "Just fine. Uh, making sure my uh….suit is good to go. Yep." She patted herself down, trying to look like she was busy doing important dive prep stuff. Ezekiel did not look like he was falling for it.
She sighed and took a deep breath, looking back down at the water. She couldn't put it off any longer. "Well, here goes nothing."
Gwen swallowed a choking mouthful of fear, braced herself, then plunged headfirst into that little slice of underwater hell that awaited her.
Heather had no such reservations about the dive. She was here to win, and if Chris thought he could scare her with some spooky old shipwreck, he was sorely mistaken. Her flashlight beam lanced through the inky blackness, giving her enough sight to see one arm beyond her natural reach, and no more.
The interior was covered in heavy clay silt, washed into the wreck from both the lake and Boney Island itself. Heather was careful not to disturb it. Visibility was bad enough with just the darkness working against her.
"Talk to me." She said, tersely. "I'm going down a long hallway of some kind."
"Any signs you can read?" Courtney asked.
Heather swam close along the wall to her right, scanning it up and down with her light for any sign of surviving lettering. "Nothing so far…wait." She drifted to a stop as her light found something. A brass plate, with letters stamped into it. She had to get close, so close the front of her helmet was almost pressed up against it.
"Uh, Main Dining Lounge A." Heather read off the plate.
"Dying lounge? What the hell is that? A morgue?" Courtney asked.
"DI-NING lounge!" Heather corrected tersely. "An eating place, where you get food!"
"Yelling at me isn't going to help." Courtney chided, in that Mom-voice she loved to use. It was a favorite of hers for when someone had upset her and she wanted to pretend to be mature about it.
"Main, di-ning, lounge, A as in asshole." Heather said, enunciating every word exceedingly sharply. "That's what it says."
"Right, then there should be a door nearby, right beside the plate." Courtney told her.
Heather felt along the wall beside the plate. Sure enough, her hand found the edge of an open doorframe, which came into view more clearly as she pulled herself towards it and slipped through the opening. It took her into a new compartment, a more open space where many tables were arranged across the floor. She only ever saw one or two at time, the furniture slowly appearing out of the blackness when she got close, and disappearing behind her as she went further in. It was eerily lived in, with utensils and plates still in their places, chairs pulled up like ghosts were dining in this sunken galley.
Behind a bar counter, she finally hit paydirt. A wooden head, of some kind. Not from anyone she knew closely, the features didn't immediately stand out to her.
"Got one." Heather said. "Maybe you can help me with it. You know anyone who kep their hair in a ponytail and kept their bangs parted to the sides? Not a very symmetrical face though, did the carver screw up or does she just have a lopsided nose?"
"Hey! There is nothing wrong with Bridgette's nose." Courtney said.
"Oh, right, this is her." Heather said. "Well she's not on my team and she went after the merge so I don't think she qualifies."
"You should still give her more respect." Courtney said, again using the Mom-voice. "She has more empathy in her pinky than you have in your whole body."
The more she dealt with Courtney the more Heather was convinced she had a pole up her ass too far to surgically remove. They weren't here to make lifelong friends, so what was the harm in a little smack talk about all the losers no longer here? Against her better judgment, Heather doubled down.
"Please, don't give me that crap." Heather said as she started to check the rest of the lounge. "The nicest people are always the biggest fakers. You should thank me, getting rid of her before she had the chance to turn on you."
Heather waited for the usual scolding from Courtney, but it never came. The line was silent. Good, she thought, that had shut her up and put her in her place. She started checking all of the tables for any more heads, but as she did so something felt off.
With every breath she took she gained back less strength. Her vision was getting blurry and darker. Even swimming forwards was becoming more and more of a struggle as her muscles started to go limp.
"Courtney?" She called weakly. "I think there's something wrong with my air. Can you check it?"
Still no response. Heather felt like she was going to faint.
"This is serious! Can you even hear me? Pull me up, there's something wrong!" She started frantically tugging at her line, but no reply came back. Soon, even that was too much exertion for her failing strength. Every inhalation felt like it was pulling in nothing, a curtain was falling on her vision. Even as she was slipping from consciousness Heather didn't stop fighting, pulling herself back towards the entrance and trying desperately to find a way back to the surface.
Then there was a hiss of air being released, and her next breath filled her with a revitalizing jolt of energy.
"You should really watch your tone." Courtney's voice cracked to life over the radio.
The realization hit Heather like a ton of bricks. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?!" Heather screamed. "What the hell is your damage?!"
"I would never!" Courtney replied. "Maybe if you weren't so busy insulting my friends, I would have noticed your oxygen valve was closed sooner."
"Are you threatening me?" Heather asked, incredulous.
"I'm giving you helpful advice." Courtney said. "Take it, or leave it."
In the moment, Heather was fuming. If she wasn't as desperate to win as she was right now, she would have gone right back to the surface and given Courtney a piece of her mind. When she got into the confessional after the challenge was over however, she had a very different attitude about it.
"I have to admit. I'm kinda impressed Courtney had the balls to do that." Heather said, hours later, but not many. "She definitely doesn't take any shit from anyone. Oh, I will get her back, eventually, but for now…she could be useful."
All she could do right now was stay focused on the task at hand. There would be time for recourse later. The only thing that mattered in this moment was winning, and Heather excelled at winning.
The competition was not slacking off, and Beth by now already had one head brought up. She remembered the teams well, and when everyone had left was still sharp in her mind. So when she found Cody's distinct spoon-shaped heavy and chubby cheeked baby face, she knew she had someone from the opposite team as Geoff that left before the merge.
Now she was looking for someone from the same team as Geoff. She let her scooter pull her along through a corridor full of open cabins, stopping at each to inspect it for heads. In one she found Lindsay. While she would have loved to bring her back up, both remaining heads would have to come from Geoff's team, which the blonde clearly did not. Beth gently set Lindsay down, propping her upright on a desk so that she could retain some dignity.
One of the next compartments she entered was a relatively large suite, about twice the size as most of the cabins at this deck level and with two beds instead of one. Through the shattered glass of the portholes, light from the surface filtered down through.
The unmistakable shape of a human head lay there waiting for her on the bed. She scooped it up, and nearly froze solid when the features resolved themselves into a recognizable face.
DJ was staring back up at her. It was a little eerie. Someone she last saw lying on a stretcher in a cast, now staring back at her as a lifeless facsimile. Even in this crude imitation his best features showed through. Despite his massive, strong jawline, he looked gentle and assuring. Beth felt simultaneously creeped out and delighted to see him again.
"Hey Geoff, I found DJ." She reported. "I'm bringing him back up."
"Aw sweet! My man!" Geoff replied. "Hey, you think we could keep it and mail it to him when the challenge is over?"
Beth laughed a little as she tucked the bust under her arm. "I dunno Geoff, sending someone in a hospital a model of their severed head sounds kinda threatening."
"Woah, you're right. Maybe save it until after he gets out huh? Oh! I should totally call him up and setup a party for when they let him out of the hospital!"
Beth had to admire how Geoff was constantly trying to put a positive spin on this. Was he getting emotional over the reminder of his buddy, and this was just how dealt with it? Beth was so busy thinking about the inner workings of Geoff's mind that she almost didn't notice she had company.
Something about as large as she was, but much flatter and sleeker, swam past her. She spun her head to track the creature, and she found herself face to face with one of Boney Island's most cryptic inhabitants.
A giant hellbender had found its way into the wreck, and was swimming down the same corridor Beth was. It turned to start circling her, the amphibian trying to size up this strange creature that had wandered into its hunting grounds. Besides large fish, the only thing it could perceive her as would be a rival, but she had all the wrong markings and scents to be another hellbender.
"Whoah, one of those giant salamander thingies is here." Beth said.
"Giant salamander?" Geoff asked, reminding her that only her team had seen it at the river. Right. That was when they were still on teams.
"It's uh, about as long as your arm span, and covered in yellow and brown splotches." Beth said.
"That is gigantic! So what's it doing?" Geoff asked.
"Just, swimming around, looking at me." Beth replied
Too large to be prey and too odd to be another one of its own kind, the huge salamander seemed ambivalent towards Beth. Deciding it was best to get on with the challenge, Beth turned her scooter on and started heading back towards the surface.
That was when the hellbender noticed the oxygen line trailing behind her. While Beth was too big to be taken as food, the long slender tube looked like the perfect meal. For in the amphibian's simple mind, it must have been a water snake or lamprey. Creatures such as these, plus fish and frogs, were the majority of the hellbenders diet, only occasionally supplemented by small land animals, as Beth had seen with the baby castoroides.
She felt a strong tug at the back of her helmet, and turned around to see the salamander chomping on her air line.
"Hey! Stop that!" She scolded it. The amphibian was predictably unresponsive.
"I said stop it!" She repeated, and this time clobbered it in the face with DJ's head for emphasis. The creature recoiled from the hit, unlatching its jaws and swimming away as fast as it could. It disappeared down the dark corridor, and Beth was alone once again. Bubbles spewed from the line where the teeth had punctured it, but thankfully the air pressure kept her helmet from flooding.
"Beth?" Geoff called. "What's going on, I heard shouting?"
"I'm okay." She said. "It just bit my line."
"The salamander thing?"
"Yeah, but I got it to go away." She said. "I'm coming back up."
She pulled down the triggers on the scooter, which did all the hard work of hauling her back up to the surface. It was a close call, but hopefully with some duct tape and good luck she could keep going, and preserve their lead to carry them to victory.
While Beth was ascending back to the surface, Gwen continued to trudge through a waking nightmare in search of the last head she needed. The corridors on the ship were cramped and constrictive, but the inner compartments were even worse. The ones that had portholes were fine enough since light from the surface could reach them, but the ones that didn't were like staring into an abyss.
Her mind could imagine walls closing in around her, the rickety old vessel collapsing to leave her entombed as her oxygen supply slowly ran out. If she wasn't simply crushed to death by the many tons of steel coming down onto her.
The only thing keeping her sane at this point, to her own surprise, was Ezekiel's voice, quietly reading out directions that took her further and further into the ship. Yes, his accent was more than a little annoying, but it was the sound of another human being. It sure beat having nothing but ambient water sounds to fill her ears.
"I think that's the last room on this deck eh?" Ezekiel said. "Turn right and keep going down the hall. There should be a ladder to the next deck down."
"You want me to go deeper into this thing?" Gwen asked.
"We gotta. Beth just brought up her second head eh, she's catching up."
"Fine, I'll take a look." Gwen sighed. "Not too far though, this place is freaking me out."
"Oh for sure." He said. "Must be kinda like how Jonah felt."
"Not. Helping." Gwen said tersely.
"Sorry."
Descending down the stairwell there was an immediate change to her surroundings. Gone were the straight, smooth-walled corridors with cabins are regular intervals. Here down below the passageways were erratic, and filled with exposed machinery. Pipes ran along the ceiling overhead. Valves and levers adorned the deck and jutted out from the walls.
It was with extreme care that Gwen went forward. She constantly checked her line to make sure it didn't snag on or tangle on the plentiful hazards, and to make sure she could still see the way back to the exit.
"If you keep going straight ahead from the stairs, there's a left turn. Take that and the first door on your right is a generator room. Maybe that'll have something."
"Right, generator room. Got it." Gwen said, following the passageway to its first junction. "Making the left. Okay, I see the right up ahead."
Just as she was turning the second corner, Ezekiel's voice blurted loudly in her headset. "Aw snap! Did I say right? I meant another left!"
Like a rubber band under tension, Gwen snapped in that direction sharply. "Gah! Get your directions right! It's bad enough being down here as….it…is…" She trailed off. "Oh no..no…no…"
Her sudden twist had dragged her tailfins through built up mud on the deck below her, kicking it into a blinding cloud of dust that welled up around her. Her vision was gone, all she could see in every direction was a hazy murk.
Gwen's head was spinning. Her chest tightened as she breathed in ragged gasps, her arms extending trying to hold back walls closing in that weren't there. Her mind created them, tried to crush her with them. That terrible phobia raked its sinister claws through her mind, destroying what was real and replacing it with unfounded, irrational, destructive fear.
"What's going on down there?" Ezekiel asked.
"Can't…breath…walls closing in!" Gwen shrieked.
"Oh crud. Is there something wrong with your air? Should I bring you back up?"
Through the panic something else hit her in the chest. The sense of embarrassment and shame she felt when she'd caved in last time returned in full force at the suggestion she be saved. Last time she was saved, and it was shameful. But there was something more to it. Ezekiel wasn't charming and assuring like Trent had tried to be. He sounded just as confused as she was, and pretty scared too. It was like a mirror of her own weakness, and looking into it steeld her resolve.
"No!" She snapped. "Don't you dare!"
"No, there's nothing wrong?" His voice cracked hoarsely through the static of the radio. "Or no, you're not good?"
"Do not pull me up!" She shouted back. "I can handle it! I'm not a baby."
"I didn't say you were a baby!"
"I know, I know! Just, shut up and let me focus."
"Sorry, I didn't know, alright?"
"Then be sorry while shutting the hell up!"
There was no response, and Gwen felt a pang of guilt hit her. Well, it was what she asked for. He couldn't know, he was gone long before she spilled her phobia at the fireside. She'd have to explain to him. She at least owed him that after all they'd gone through this far.
Wallowing in her own guilty ruminations did wonders to pull Gwen's mind out of fear's grip. Her breathing slowed down, she stopped flailing. Gradually the dust began to settle, and her vision returned to her, as much as it could in the darkness of the lower decks.
"Okay, I'm back." She exhaled.
The line was quiet. Had she pissed him off? Had he given up on her?
"Hey, you're still there right? You didn't ditch me, did you? Zeke?"
Maybe bitching at the person who had her air and her directions wasn't the smartest move. Not that Gwen would ever admit that out loud, but the thought crossed her mind all the same. She internally cursed her talent for getting herself into hot water and alienating people. How the hell had Trent ever agreed to date her?
"Are you uh…still mad?" Ezekiel's faint voice snapped her once again out of a self-pitying soliloquy.
"I wasn't mad." Gwen sighed. "Just scared."
"Scared? Of what?" Ezekiel asked. "Is there something dangerous down there?"
"I'll explain when I get back up." Gwen said. "Let's find this stupid last head and get the hell out of here."
"Right. Let's do this, eh." Ezekiel said. "Are you still in like, the same place?"
The dust had settled enough that she could start regaining her bearings. Carefully, gingerly, she started to look around, finding herself in much the same sort of place as she was before the panic attack. Indeed, a short amount of backtracking along the length of her line and she found the exit from whence she came.
"Yeah, still here." She replied as she returned to the scene of her panic attack. "You said there was a generator room?"
"Mhm. It's the first door on your left after the other left you took down the hall eh."
Glancing to her left, she was able to barely make out the shape of a doorway, nestled between several rows of vertical pipes. Swimming through into the generator room, she found the titular piece of machinery encrusted in marine growth. A few holes in the deck overhead let the dim light from the surface through, creating patches of visibility she could navigate between more easily.
As she circled around the compartment, she came to what looked like a control panel. Densely covered in levers, valves, gauges and switches, it drew her undivided attention when she noticed two round shapes dangling from a large crank wheel.
"Think I found the heads." Gwen said, swimming over and picking one up. Unfortunately, she couldn't even begin to put a name on the face. "Who is this guy? Hey Zeke, uh, did you have a guy on your team who had like…big square chin, sticks down a lot. Hair that looks like a short mullet?"
"Uh, I dunno eh, that doesn't sound like anyone I knew. I was only there a day." He replied.
"Does a headband ring a bell?" She asked.
"Uh I think there was a guy with a headband. Was he the one who didn't jump? Or was it the guy with the green shirt?"
"You're thinking of DJ." Gwen corrected. "He didn't jump the first day, and he doesn't look anything like this. This is someone else."
"Uh, is it the guy who went around threatening to beat everyone up and played really loud music?" Zeke asked. "I think he was on my team eh."
"Him? No, no that can't be right." Gwen said. "That guy had piercings. This face is depressingly piercingless. What a square."
"Like, his head is square shaped?" Ezekiel asked.
"No, no like a square. A boring person who fits in with the rest of the sheep."
"Sheep? So like they're a shepherd of some kind?" Ezekiel asked.
"Nevermind. I have no clue who this is, and quite frankly, I don't care." Gwen set the head back down. Thankfully, she did recognize the next one she pulled up. The twin pigtails, wide eyes and heart shaped face gave her traumatic flashbacks to choruses of ear-shattering squeals.
"Oh I remember you alright." Gwen muttered as she took the cord the head hung by and wrapped it around her waist, turning to get back to the surface. "Good news, we got the last one. I'm coming back."
"Sweet deal eh. Who is it."
"Katie. I always tell her apart from Sadie by remembering she's stupid enough to date Noah of all people." Gwen said.
"Is that a bad thing?" Zeke asked. "They seemed pretty happy when I saw them."
"You didn't have to suffer through being on a team with him." Gwen said as she swam up to the next deck, ever closer to the exit. "Noah is the laziest, most smug and insufferable prick on the whole island. Was, I guess, now that he's gone."
"Huh. He was a little mean to me I guess, but nothing as bad as you're saying. You talk about that a lot, about how the people on this island are the worst."
"Well it's true! Look how they treated you. Half of them wanted you gone the first day you showed back up, and didn't even try to hide it." Gwen said.
"That's true." Ezekiel said. "But I did get better, thanks to Beth. Now they just leave me be most of the time."
"What are you implying?" Gwen asked, her tone bordering on dangerous.
"Nothing eh. Just thinking out loud I guess?"
"Careful." She warned. "On this island, you keep your thoughts to yourself if you wanna survive."
By now she was nearing the surface, the big gray hole in the otherwise blackened interior beckoning her up to safety. Ezekiel was ready and waiting, offering her a hand to get her up onto the deck, which she gratefully accepted. With the addition of Katie, they had all three heads
Gwen popped open the seal on her helmet, casting the big bulky thing aside. After an hour of stale, off-tasting canned air, even the decaying smell of lakewater was a welcome one. Ezekiel was already ready to run with Harold and Cody's heads.
"Let's go eh!" He said.
"Right behind you." Gwen replied, kicking off her cheap flippers and running along the deck as fast a she dared. In other words, as fast as she could run while checking every step to make sure it wouldn't fall on a rusty nail and give her tetanus. Sure, she had her shots. No, that didn't mean she wanted to risk it.
They weren't the only ones however. Beth and Geoff had three heads between them and were making their own mad dash back to the staging area. It was a race to the bow of the ship. They jumped over holes, skidded past dangerous looking sharp objects, all while trying to keep their prizes held close lest they be lost overboard.
In the end, it was Geoff who arrived first, presenting the heads of DJ and Justin in front of Chris, with Beth following up shortly by delivering him Sadie's head on a platter and trying to not look guilty about that.
"These all check out." Chris said, inspecting the heads and comparing them to a chart on his clipboard to make sure they were correct. "We have our winners!"
Gwen and Ezekiel arrived seconds too late, victory snatched from their hands after nearly catching up. Heather and Courtney were right behind them too, and upon seeing they were in last place yet again Heather had some choice words to record in the confessional after getting out of her diving suit.
"We deserve to be in last at this point, so Courtney can be up for elimination after what she tried to do to me. Get off my ass you Vader wannabe." She rolled her eyes. "Though, if I'm going in front of a jury against anyone, it's definitely her. Gotta save the revenge for later I guess. We're still gunning for that immunity, make no mistake."
The teams were chained back together and led to the beach, where a new starting line awaited them. This close to the tree line, they could see the effigies from earlier had been fitted with deer hides stretched into a concave shape to form water collectors. Whoever built them had figured out quite the practical usage for such macabre decor.
It was here that Beth noticed the small raft ran aground further along the beach. At first she thought it was just a pile of logs tossed towards the shore by the howling winds from the storm, but then she noticed they were all neatly bundled together and facing the same direction. She could barely make out what looked like crudely carved oars and woven baskets on top of it. Silently, she prayed that another psycho wasn't on the loose.
"Congratulations to Team Biff, for once again exceeding our expectations for them." Chris said. "And proving that you don't need brains, just a good attitude, to win a challenge."
"Thanks!" Beth beamed, before realizing what Chris actually said. "Hey!"
"For the second part of the challenge." Chris continued, ignoring her protests. "It's a simple foot race across the island. You'll collect three flags, whoever has all three first wins the challenge and immunity for both campers."
"You'll get these handy dandy maps to guide you, as well as a compass. One camper will hold the compass, the other gets the map, and you have to work together to navigate like this. Fun right?" Chris laughed. "All the flags are clearly marked on your maps and are located near pretty obvious landmarks, so finding them shouldn't be too hard."
"You emphasized finding." Courtney said. "So something else is going to be hard."
Geoff started snickering uncontrollably, and when the accidental innuendo clicked in Beth's head she began fighting back giggles.
"Real mature guys." Heather rolled her eyes.
"Very astute of you Courtney." Chris said. "Don't worry, you'll see what the hard part is once you get there. It'll be pretty obvious. Now line up!"
Everyone straightened out and faced forwards at the starting line.
"Now, as a reward for their second win, Beth and Geoff will get a minute head start." Chris explained, pulling out a stopwatch. "On your marks, get set…go!"
Eager to make the most of their success, Beth and Geoff started ahead. The minute timer began ticking down, forcing the others to sit impatiently and wait for their turn. Heather and Courtney tapped their feet impatiently, while Gwen and Ezekiel just stood there awkwardly, not making eye contact.
At first, Beth and Geoff just ran into the woods as fast as they could to get the most distance ahead of their competition possible. The old foot path they had taken on their first trip was submerged, but another trail that took them over higher ground remained open. It was also a more direct route across the island, cutting across the roughest of island's landscape.
Said rough and uneven terrain made the effects of the rainfall even more dramatic. When Beth stopped to catch her breath they were on a high ridge overlooking a miniature waterfall that hadn't been there before. Thousands of gallons of water that had fallen uphill converged at a narrow point, spilling over the side of a cliff that had once been bone dry. Old growth plants that clung to the rocky edifice were battered by the oncoming water, their fronds and branches ending against the tide.
"We should check the map." Beth suggested. "Don't wanna get lost."
"Oh, right!" Geoff showed her the compass. "Which way we heading?"
"Looks like we're facing North." Beth said, then checked back on the map, finding the trail they took, based on how far she thought they'd gone and proximity to the starting point. From there, she traced the path towards the first flag. Two right forks and they would be there soon enough.
"This way." She said.
Ahead of them they could just barely make out the top of a hill above the line of old growth trees that towered above them. As they got closer it disappeared, swallowed by the dense, dark forest. Between the clouds above and the smothering tree cover, the forest floor of Boney Island was murky and ominous. Various morbid effigies lined the path and kept them from going astray, becoming welcome companions despite their disturbing visages.
The empty eyes of the decorative skulls were not the only thing watching them either. Beth could sense it, that they were being followed. Something high in the trees tracked them from above. Occasionally when she glanced up she could see eyes staring down at her, before their owner darted back into the canopy.
She tried her best to stay focused on giving directions, but always kept her hand ready to fetch the crowbar. Her eyes glancing between the path, the map, and the trees above. The sound of branches rustling told her that they were not yet left alone.
The ground beneath them shifted, giving them the first sign they had reached the hill. The trail became winding as it twisted upwards along the ever increasing slope. Something else had changed too. A new sound joined the quiet rustling of the forest, a distant thrumming that began to sound more like a deep, bassy kazoo as they got closer. Beth had never heard anything like it in her life, but Geoff seemed to perk up with recognition.
"What is that?" She wondered out loud.
"Sounds like sloths!" Geoff said.
"Sloths? In this part of the world?" Beth asked incredulously.
"Yeah dude, like really big ones the size of cows!" Geoff said, making big, expansive gestures with his free arm. "You'll see, they're right up ahead."
The trees began to part around them as they reached the hilltop, and the loud calls became every more clear and numerous. Finally they emerged out of the treeline, and there beheld a sight of mythical proportions.
Driven to high ground by the constant rains and floods, dozens of ground sloths had congregated on the hilltop. Seeing one of the bizarre Pleistocene relics was surreal enough, but here they were packed so tight that each beast only had a few meters to itself.
Such congregations were not common occurrences, and did not represent one large, temporary herd either. Sloths which did not have children to care for typically lived in same-sex bachelor and bachelorette groups, typically formed after they had been kicked out by their mothers. These groups would then remain together until the mating season, where they would split off to go find partners. That however, was many weeks away, happening typically in the fall for the Boney Island sloth population. Newborns would then gestate over the winter and be born in the spring, when food was most plentiful.
It was also the same hilltop that the first flag was located on. Sure enough, three red flags were planted in the ground, right in the middle of multiple sloths. Though Beth's personal experience with sloths was more limited than Geoff's, she already understood what angry cattle could do, and assumed that these bizarre creatures were just as capable of harm as any longhorn back home.
With so many sloths in one place however, there was bound to be trouble, and conflicts between neighbors. Sloths were growling at each other for getting too close, and swatting at members of other herds that irritated them. It was only a matter of time before something big happened.
Shortly after Beth and Geoff arrived, an uppity young male began making a fuss. An old bull had settled in for a nap atop a large rock, giving him a commanding view and a comfortably spot to bask in what little light escaped to the ground from the clouds. The newcomer had taken issue with this. To make himself heard, he snorted, chuffed and bellowed at the old bull, headbutting him in the flank to try and wake him from his stupor.
All this had the desired effect of waking the old bull, who slowly shuffled upright and turned to face the aggressor. His coat was ragged and grayed from age, with a pair of claws on his right hand broken off from a fight earlier in life. The challenger, by contrast, had a lustrous reddish-brown coat of fur, and gleaming, sharp claws not yet tested against the mettle of any rivals.
Now the two beasts stared each other down, sizing up the competition and whether this was at all worth their time. Apparently it was, because both reared up onto their hind legs and raised their arms skywards. They trumpeted at each other as they batted the air above their heads, showing off the power and strength of their claws in an attempt to get their opponent to back down without coming to blows.
By now the commotion was starting to distract the rest of the sloths, who all turned to watch the impending battle. Seeing the opportunity forming before her, Beth tugged at her half of their third arm to get Geoff's attention.
"Let's go." She whispered.
He nodded, and together they crept forward through the big, shaggy crowd.
The yelling match between the old bull and the young rival was going nowhere. They both refused to back down or be intimidated by the other's posturing.
The younger animal was the first to strike. It raised a clawed hand and struck at the chest of its opponent. Likewise, the old bull returned the favor, its massive forelimbs bashing the rival on the side of the head. The huge beast staggered from the blow, but held its ground.
Giant ground sloths spend more of their day with their arms above their heads, plucking the trees for their nutritious leaves, and they develop a formidable amount of muscle to support this activity. The blows the two males hurled at each other would shatter bone and disembowel less robust animals, and the loud smacks that each hit produced were testimony to this fact. But these creatures weren't merely strong, they were tough as well. Their bones were thick and sturdy, and their skin was covered in hard rows of boney armor. This could not be readily seen however, as it was well covered underneath their fur, which by itself offered even more protection, being so thick as to help cushion incoming blows.
Thus, they traded strikes, in what could only be described as a colossal, multi-tonne boxing match. Each sloth batted its opponent with its forelimb, smacking them in the face, chest, arms and sides. Whoever caved in to the assault first lost.
Such spectacle was wondrous and terrifying to witness for small, squishy humans. Knowing that such blows could be turned against them if they agitated the animals was a hair-raising thought, but the others sloths seemed as captivated by the battle as Geoff and Beth were.
They continued creeping through the herd, at times having to shuffle between animals so close that the long fur brushed against their skin. Despite many close calls, they made it to the flags, plucking one out of the ground and being the first to claim it for their team.
It was just as well that they did. After several minutes of ferocious combat, the older male landed a solid blow against the rival's jaw. It landed with a loud crunch of fracturing bones, and the younger animal staggered back in pain. Deciding that this wasn't worth the basking spot, he retreated in shame to his original bachelor herd. For their part, they were quite supportive, heckling the older male with calls that might be heard as jeers. The bull ignored them, settling back down and taking his nap.
The herd went back to mulling about and squabbling with each other, now that the big fight was over. In that time Geoff and Beth had made it safely to the opposite side of the clearing and disappeared into the trees. It was well they did, because the competition was right behind them.
Minutes earlier, but not many, Gwen and Ezekiel were trekking up the same slopes leading to the clearing. Her breakdown earlier was still fresh on his mind. Ever since then she'd lost a lot of her edge towards him. What had she seen down there? It probably wasn't Jesus. Probably. His curiosity got the better of him, and he ventured to ask.
"So uh, what'd you see down there that freaked you out so much eh?"
He braced for some snappy retort that would shut him down, and with the way her eyes bored into him it looked ready to happen. But then her expression softened.
"I didn't see anything I…" Gwen took a deep breath. "I have a fear of being buried alive, and being down there triggered it."
He winced empathetically. Having to face your worst fear as part of an already hard challenge sounded like a herculean task. Ezekiel tried to think of something nice and assuring to say, but all he could come up with was, "Darn, tough luck getting picked for the diver eh?"
"It wasn't luck." She shook her head, her expression turning deeply bitter. "Chris knew exactly what he was doing."
That puzzled Ezekiel. He scratched his chin, trying to make sense of it. Gwen wasn't a very open person, she'd barely started to even talk to him. So what could possibly be the reason that anyone knew something as deep and personal as her worst fear?
"How'd he know?" He asked
"Okay, so get this. Way back earlier, like, weeks ago, back when we still had teams, my team loses this stupid camping challenge right? We hang out by the fire for a while after, and the other team comes and starts like, talking with us? And we get around to fears and stuff cause, I don't know, someone freaked out about something, and soon we're all spilling our deepest fears to each other?"
"Well, turns out we're being recorded, and Chris slaps an entire challenge together basically overnight to put us through all those fears. I made the mistake of telling everyone my fear was being buried alive, so I got put in a glass coffin and buried on the beach."
"Man, that bites." Ezekiel grimaced. "No offense, but I sure am glad I missed out on that one."
"None taken." Gwen chuckled. "If I'd known I could get out first, skip that stupid challenge, and come back, I so would have."
"I feel that."
Things went quiet for a moment between them. Any other time she'd be glad that he shut up, but for once she found herself enjoying his company. Crazy as it was, she was trying to think of something to say to him. Her mind circled back to fear and the talk they'd had by the fireside about it all those weeks ago. He'd missed it, so it only seemed right to include him belatedly.
"So, what is your fear, anyways?" She asked.
"Me?" He asked, surprised she was asking him a question. He mulled it over for a second, tapping his chin. "Huh…guess I never thought much about it eh. Maybe it's bees? I'm deathly allergic so they are pretty scary."
"Fair enough. You know Zeke, you're not as bad as-"
She was cut off as he suddenly jerked to a stop, and by their connection yanking her backwards mid-step.
"Shhh! Quiet!" He whispered.
Startled and confused, she tried to pull away from him. Not that she could, but she tried. "Hey!" She protested. "What are you-"
"Skunk!"
That shut her up fast, and she stopped struggling and began looking around.
"Oh."
It registered in her vision as a bright white stripe on the deeply green ground, the rest of its black body resolving into view as she peered at the small mammal. On an island full of lost Pleistocene giants, something as mundane as a skunk looked surreal and out of place. Gwen stared at it trying to judge if it was real or not.
"Quiet." Ezekiel whispered. "Don't wanna startle him."
Gwen was completely onboard with that, and silently nodded to communicate her unconditional agreement.
The animal perked up, raising its nose as it detected a new scent nearby. Evidently finding the interlopers repugnant, it took this as a sign to scurry away. Ezekiel and Gwen were relieved, or rather, they would have been, if the skunk had done the sensible thing and ran off into the bushes. Instead, it ran along the trail they were taking, and towards the clearing up ahead where their flag awaited them.
They both looked at each other with a look that asked 'What the hell do we do?', and neither had an expression that said 'I know what the hell we're gonna do.' Their hand was forced however, by Heather and Courtney, who were mere feet behind them on the trail now because thy stalled out.
"Let's just follow it." Ezekiel said. "If we don't get too close we should be fine."
Between Heather and the skunk, it was a tossup which Gwen would rather be closer to. Eventually, she picked the skunk, and she took off with Ezekiel towards it.
The trees parted around them, and Ezekiel looked up to behold the fantastic sight before him. It was his first ground sloth sighting, and the next several dozen after that. The herd had calmed down since the brutal fight from earlier, and many were shuffling towards the treeline to take their turn plucking leaves from high in the branches.
"Are those bears?" Ezekiel asked, turning a deathly shade of pale.
"I don't think bears eat leaves." Gwen said,
"Maybe they're like panda bears?" He offered.
"Whatever they are, I don't wanna mess with them." Gwen replied.
For as fearsome as the sloths were however, when they saw the skunk scurry towards them they became as frightened as an elephant seeing a mouse. Those ice age giants, willing to throw down against each other over a patch of good territory, were now staggering back and making distressed shrieks to warn the rest of the herd. All over a tiny little critter no bigger than a housecat.
As preposterous as it seemed, most large animals did well to avoid skunks. Even ferocious predators like wolves and bears knew to steer clear. Though one may think of the skunk as a modern animal, they were just as present for many tens of thousands of years throughout the ice age, leading up to the now where they reside. Thus, the long gone mammoths, mastodons and saber tooth tigers had surely dreaded the skunk as much as anything alive today. So too must have the ground sloths, including these last few stragglers here on Boney Island.
"Look, he's giving us a way through." Ezekiel said.
Indeed, the whole herd of sloths seemed to displace around it like liquid.
"Woah, it's like, uh, skunk Moses, right?" Gwen laughed weakly.
"Yeah. Don't wanna know what promised land he's going to. It uh, probably stinks eh?" Ezekiel chuckled sensibly. "Come one, let's go!"
"Right."
They charged ahead, letting their smelly new friend lead the way. Astonishingly, not only did it completely clear the way for them, but gave them a viable way to the flags, which they picked up with not so much as a single sloth near them.
Courtney and Heather were hot on their tail behind them, but their run would prove far more treacherous. They were far enough back that, they ran into sloths returning to their places after the skunk had left them behind.
"No way am I going near that thing!" Heather tried to bring them to a halt, but Courtney fought even harder to keep them moving.
"Do you wanna win or not?" Courtney snapped. "We're already in last place, we can't slow down!"
"Fine. But if I die you better pay for my funeral with your prize money."
"Shut up!"
Gracelessly they raced between a bunch of giant ground sloths freshly stressed out from their skunk sighting. One nearly trampled them as they dodged past it, another almost swiped their heads off with its claws, but for a well-timed dive. Heather did her best to keep up with Courtney through the frantic evasive maneuvers.
"I thought you said you were a cheerleader!" Courtney cried as they dove between two sloths, barely avoiding being crushed in the middle.
"We never had to build pyramids chained together!" Heather shouted back.
Despite much tension and many close calls, they emerged on the other side of the clearing unscathed, and with their flag in hand. There was no time to celebrate, they were still in last. They set off after Ezekiel and Gwen, determined to claw their way out of last some way or another.
The next leg of the race was much shorter, taking them down the opposite slope of the hill they just climbed and into a flooded valley. The Gophers still present to see it couldn't have known, but the very same riverbanks they had walked along in the last Boney Island challenge were right in front of them. Submerged under more than six feet of water, the terrain was hardly recognizable anymore, but there were some hints that this was the same locality. The biggest of these hints were the giant beavers, for whom the raised water levels were a great boon. They swam through the floodwaters and dined on trees that had been inundated by the deluge, offering a great feast to them that had previously lingered above their heads, unreachable.
Compared to the sloths, the sight of giant beavers wading through the water took Ezekiel aback only a little less. Even from a distance the huge orange incisors made it plainly clear what they were, and he found himself relieved that this was just some jumbo sized version of a normal anima. It was a welcome break from those incomprehensible prehistoric behemoths that combined features of many known creatures in bizarre ways.
"Huh, Beth wasn't kidding about those huge beavers." Ezekiel remarked.
"Well you can tell her yourself, look!" Gwen said.
There on the near bank of the water were Beth and Geoff, working hard to get their next flag. Three puzzle boxes lay on the shore, each with a flag printed on the lid. Each one had one circular button on all four of its sides.
"Oh man, my folks used to give me these all the time as a kid." Ezekiel's eyes lit up as he knelt down in front of the box, "Said it'd make my brain strong, not like those mindless cartoons on the television that rot your brain eh?"
"Can you solve this or not?" Gwen asked.
"Sure eh. I'll need both my hands though." He said.
"Fine." She sighed, getting as close to him as she dared and letting her connected arm go limp to give him as much use of his as possible.
Ezekiel took a deep breath and began to probe the box, looking for a way inside. Two of the buttons slid in and out, the other two rotated. Interesting, he thought. He leaned in real close, so that his ear was nearly up against the surface of it, so that he could hear what was going on within.
At first Gwen didn't pay much attention, only wanting it to be over with. But as Ezekiel really got into his work, she couldn't help but be fascinated. He was almost like an entirely different person, dead quiet and seemingly in a world of his own. His fingers worked slowly, methodically, moving the mechanism in millimeter increments and attuned to the tiniest vibrations and sounds so that he might pick up what was going on inside and decrypt the steps necessary to unlock it.
Then his eyes went wide with excitement. He gave one last pull on the right, a turn on the front, then a turn back on the rear, and click! The seam of the lid, so tight that you almost couldn't see it, cracked open. Gwen reached down with her free arm and tipped it open, revealing their flag inside.
"Two down, one to go eh?" Ezekiel said as he picked it up.
"Right on. That was pretty cool." She said. This time she meant it. Ezekiel was dumb about people and about girls, but he had wits about him all the same.
They didn't rest on their laurels. With the flag now in hand, they were on their way to the finish line. At long last, the lead had finally been pried from the iron grip of Geoff and Beth, who were still fiddling with the box trying to get it open. Now they really felt that fire light under their ass. They had to get done soon if they wanted any chance of staying in this race.
"Ah screw this." Courtney vented all her frustration into a banshee-like war cry, then hurled the puzzle box into a nearby tree trunk with violent force. The wooden shell shattered on impact, and from the wreckage she plucked their second flag.
"Finally we're out of last." Heather said. "About damn time."
"You should have never doubted me." Courtney grinned.
Now Beth and Geoff were the ones in last place, still unable to get the box open. Realizing that they were out of time, Beth unhooked her crowbar from the belt loop and jammed the end under the lip of the box. With a heave she popped the lid right off its mountings while Geoff held it down, and just like that they were back in the race.
The end was in sight, whoever could grab the last flag would claim the final victory, and suddenly the odds were a lot more even for everyone. First they ran as fast as they could, then jogged when they were too winded for that, and finally they had to slow down to a walk. Boney Island was a big place, and it could not simply be traversed with a few minutes of sprinting.
At least they wouldn't need the map to find the last flag, for it was located on the giant skull shaped cliff that loomed over everything else on the island. It was always there, lurking, reminding everyone of the namesake of this land.
With water levels high, all three teams set off to approach the cliff from the back side, staying on high and dry ground in the process. Since they were all going on the same path and since they all were more or less equally exhausted, they maintained a steady pace in close proximity, a silent truce between them which would only be violated once they got to their destination. That however, was less epic than a race to the finish, however, and in the final cut of the show they would replay the footage of them sprinting several times and then cut to their arrival at the destination, implying a much more intense race than what actually went on.
Unfortunately that arrival would not happen as they had hoped it would. As they climbed up the rocky slopes, their journey took them into a narrow little ravine, with vertical rock faces on either side of them. The sort of place where the wind howled through and rocks tumbled down, forcing them to keep eyes up lest they be struck by one. It was a fairly short stretch before the ground leveled out again, but it proved rather fateful.
There, at the end of the ravine, a tree had fallen. It came down from above, and brought with it a great mass of earth and rocks. The way was blocked, and short of climbing out of the ravine they would have to backtrack to get around it.
"Great. Just great." Heather rolled her eyes. "Would have been nice of Chris to tell us this was blocked before putting the trail on our maps."
"Please, our suffering is his paycheck." Gwen rolled her eyes. "Huh. That sounds pretty poetic, Maybe Trent could make a song about it. Hey Zeke, you got a pen?"
"No can do eh, left them all back at the cabins." He shook his head.
"Crap. Uh, Beth, can you do me a solid?"
She wasn't listening. Beth's attention was drawn upwards by something rather odd about the fallen tree. The trunk wasn't splintered like it had been ripped apart in a storm. Instead, it was cleanly cut, with straight-edged marks of ax strikes against the raw wood. The tree wasn't fallen, it had been felled. Someone didn't want them going this way.
"Beth? Beth?"
Geoff's hand waving in front of her face brought her attention back to the group.
"Huh?"
"Nevermind." Gwen shook her head.
"You losers can keep workshopping lyrics." Heather said. "But we're going to win this thing."
Her and Courtney were the first to turn around and head back. The others were quick to follow. This time they found a path that led down the low side of the cliff and out towards the beach. The shadowy forests of Boney Island made it hard sometimes to distinguish between safe, dry ground, and inundated muddy quagmires. When the contestants weren't busy trying to jog slightly faster to pull ahead of one another, they were watching every step they took to make sure it wouldn't backfire on them. This late in the game, this late in the challenge, everyone was bringing their top game.
"Ugh what tacky decorations." Heather scoffed. "Is Chris seriously trying to scare us with this crap?"
The decorations to which she referred were bones, strung out on a wire stretched between two trees on either side of the trail. Spinal bones ran the length of the cord, and below it, large animal femurs dangled like windchimes. Indeed, they would rattle eerily whenever a breeze slipped through the dense forest.
It was the sort of thing that would have put Beth in a cold sweat before. Now it hardly phased her, she was far more concerned that whatever placed it was still around.
"I don't think Chris put that here." Gwen suggested.
"Well duh he did." Heather said. "Why else would there be so many spooky decorations conveniently placed to remind us we're on the trail?"
Nobody had an easy answer for that. So they kept going.
The forest ended sharply, peeling back to reveal the far shore of the island, in the looming shadow of the great skull rock. The campers were not the first ones there however. A pair of silhouettes appeared before them, and at first they assumed it was just a camera crew waiting to capture their arrival.
A few problems with that assumption, however. Cameramen didn't stand in the water if they could avoid it. They also usually had cameras, and these guys didn't. When Courtney gave them a second glance, they weren't even guys at all. Though they stood upright like men, and had much they same body plan, these strangers were covered in a dark silver blue coat of fur, almost purple in the dim light.
Most crucially, they had tails, which no human ever did. Not a a malformed vestigial remnant as appears rarely in humans, nor a limp, lifeless prop as part of a costume. It was long, slender, and wrapped around towards the front, where it grasped the back of a spear, aimed at the water in anticipation of fish swimming past.
Big, round eyes, a deep brown with beady black pupils, shot up towards the interlopers on the beach. All six campers stared right back at them, beholding these bizarre creatures. No, not creatures, for they held tools in their hands of clearly their own making, not plundered from the excess of modernity but hewn from the stone and wood of their island home.
Most would have assumed them to be lost ape kin of some sort, but no ape alive or recently extinct had such stupendous tails. Later seasons would see contestants far more versed in the natural sciences, who may have been able to discern the origins of the mysterious figures from this piece of anatomy alone. The six present before them however, were all but completely clueless.
"Are you seeing this?" Gwen whispered.
"I see it eh. Can hardly believe it." He replied.
The strangers then suddenly dashed away from them towards the forest. They tossed their spears into bags carried over their shoulders, so that they could drop to all fours and sprint at a most frightening speed. Once past the tree line, they were gone, vanished into the thick vegetation.
"What the hell was that?" Heather asked.
"Doesn't matter, it's gone now." Courtney said, more nervously than she liked to admit. "Let's get on with the challenge."
A couple of red poles planted on the beach guided their attention to another staging area. Much like the dive staging area, there were fold-out tables with equipment on them. This time, it was climbing harnesses, instead of wetsuits and oxygen. Matching this were three climbing ropes that led all the way up the cliff to the right eye of the huge skull rock above. There, three flags fluttered in the wind, beckoning them to come up and be the first to claim victory.
A red and yellow blur roared overhead from the inland side of the island, blasting the beach with a miniature tornado of rotor wash before settling into a steady hover out over the water.
"Welcome to the final part of the finale challenge campers!" Chris's voice boomed from the helicopter. "Keys to unlock your handcuffs are on the table, along with instructions for donning your harnesses. There's a clause in your contract stating that if you do not read and/or listen to all instructions relating to your safety gear, we are not responsible for you falling to your death while using it. So uh, pay attention. Or don't, it's your call dudes."
Thus it was with both haste and caution that they proceeded. Nobody wanted to miss a piece of crucial information, and nobody wanted to fall behind either. After uncuffing themselves, each pair decided on their climber, and their line handler. Heather would climb, because Courtney insisted and she needed to be in Courtney's good graces to have any future prospects in the game. Beth insisted that Geoff climb, ostensibly because he was the tallest contestant and had the biggest advantage. Privately, she was looking forward to the anterior view she would get. Finally, Gwen would be the climber for her team. She had done a great job in spite of Heather last time, with someone she could count on handling the ropes she was sure she had this in the bag.
It was Heather who managed to secure her harness first and begin her ascent. Gwen was right on her heels, using the narrow cliffside hiking trail to regain her footing after each sprint upwards. Geoff meanwhile, still had yet to get off the ground.
"Yo, hurry up dudette. We're falling behind, and I seriously don't wanna blow it now." He urged.
"Hurrying!" Beth squeaked.
She rushed to get the last of his straps tightened down, fighting the urge to be indecent with this opportunity. It was a difficult fight.
"Ouch! Watch it, those straps are pinching my butt man." Geoff said.
"Hehe yeah." Beth laughed weakly. "The straps…."
Some last second touches, a quick skim of the manual, and that was it. "Go, go!" She said, running back to the rope to get ready to help support him. Finally Geoff was on his way up, his long arms letting him make big strides towards catching up. Time would tell if it was enough to close the gap.
As Heather and Gwen began to near the top, they got their first signs that they were not alone up here. A nest lay by the flags inside the eye, and the giant wingspan and high crest of the individual perched at the edge of it left little doubt as to the identity of the owner. Where once there had been two proud parents rearing three healthy chicks, now a lone male stymphalian goose stood vigil over his last infant. And he was not happy to see invaders coming for his bastion.
The guardian threw open his wings all the way and let out a terrible shriek, trying to ward off the humans with a display of strength. For a moment both girls stopped, hesitating to go any further. Staring up at such a colossal bird, baring it's tooth-lined beak brought to mind visions of prehistoric monsters, or mythical creatures.
A glance down decided the matter. Geoff was gaining fast since they'd stopped. Neither had come this far to be henpecked away from their victory. Besides, they only had to get near the nest, they weren't actually raiding it. Hopefully the bird knew the difference.
They forged ahead, and as they covered the last few feet to the eye, the stymphalian goose realized that simple posturing would not hold them back. Whether or not these were raiders was of little importance to him. He would not take that risk with his chick's future. With a mighty woosh the great aerial hunter of Boney Island took to the skies on a mission.
"Please be leaving." Heather said.
"Don't think so." Gwen said as she watched the bird make a circle around the cliff face. Then he turned right at them, uttering a purely demonic war cry as he struck the campers along their head and backs with his feet. The giant of the skies delivered powerful kicks and batted his opponents with his wings, causing Heather to lose her grip.
She fell, screaming as she went down for a few seconds before the line went taught. Courtney dug her heels in and gripped the rope hard, catching her climber successfully. Now was not the time to put her in her place, after all. Now was the time to win.
Gwen maintained her grip in the face of the goose's ferocious attacks, but her progress slowed to a crawl as she could only move when the damn thing wasn't kicking, smacking or biting at her. Geoff was keen to take advantage of this, rising above her to take first place.
"Alright! First place, here I come!" He cheered as he got a hand on the bottom ledge of the eye.
Then, as the goose swooped in for another pass, he caught sight of Geoff pulling himself into the eye. Mid-flight the creature turned its head and looked at him. Not just a passing glance, but as if the animal was looking him right in the eye trying to see into his soul. It let out a scream, this one long and mournful.
He came after him in a most ferocious manner as he ran towards the flags, tackling him bodily and biting down on his arm.
"Gah! Get off me man!" Geoff punched the goose repeatedly in the head, kicking him away from him desperately. The bird was thrown off, and he took off into the sky to make another attack from above.
Geoff took the reprieve as a chance to run for the flags. He climbed over the rocks in the eye towards that final tantalizing goal, all while being hit with a sense of deja vu. Did he know this bird? It sure acted like it knew him. They way he attacked him was unlike anything he saw him inflict upon the others.
He was nearly in reach of the last flag when the goose came back. The huge drake bored in with vengeful intent, taking Geoff to the ground with a flying tackle. Gwen and Heather pulled themselves up into the eye just in time to see him get completely bodied by the goose mere feet from the flags, and they unflinchingly ran for the flag to take advantage of his predicament.
"Okay but we are going to get it off him once we win right?" Gwen asked.
"You can try." Heather shot back.
Geoff hurled the bird off him once again, scrambling for the flag. Outside the eye Chris's helicopter flew low at the edge of the opening, trying to capture the exact moment one of them was victorious. Surrounded on all sides by intruders, the goose scrambled to his feet once again, scrambling for its nest.
Just before Heather overtook him, Geoff snatched the flag and held it up triumphantly.
"I got it dudes!"
"And Geoff brings home the gold for him and Beth!" Chris confirmed over the speaker. "We have our winner!"
There was little time to celebrate the victory for Geoff, what with the goose shrieking at him and looking ready to attack again should be step any closer. He had now fallen back onto his nest, sensing that he was outnumbered and determined to hold his ground. His wings were turned down to act as a shield, his neck pulled back like a snake ready to strike.
Just behind him they could barely make out a small white blur of movement. It was mostly hidden by the cover of the wings, but they could occasionally catch it peeking over. And they definitely could hear its distressed chirping. For several seconds they stood face to face with the father bird, not daring approach any closer to him.
When they were mostly sure he would hold his ground on the nest, they began to back off. The honking and shrieking began to subside as they gained distance, soon replaced with a low hissing. No matter what, the bird never let its eyes off Geoff. It watched his every step, right up until the last ones where he started lowering himself back down the cliff and out of the eye.
The bird continued to watch as they descended down the cliff, perching at the edge of the eye to make sure they were truly leaving. Only once they were on solid ground once again was he satisfied, and the stymphalian goose went quiet at least, returning to his lonely vigil at the nest once again.
"Did you hear that!" Geoff threw off the harness and ran back to Beth, offering her a high five. "We got it!"
"Yeah we did!" Beth cheered, accepting the high five. Their hands slapped together, and Beth recoiled sharply when it felt bizarrely wet. "Gah! What the-" she looked down to see her hand was bloody. And it wasn't her own.
"Geoff, your arm!" She cried.
His arm, as well as his chest and even his face were lacerated by the attacks from the bird. Blood ran from his wounds in thick streams, smearing his shirt and pants. It got everywhere. But Geoff didn't seem to mind, and only looked at the damage with curiosity rather than agony.
"Woah. That is so cool." He said, too hyped up on adrenaline to feel any of the aching pain he would in a few hours from now.
The commotion had drawn Courtney to the scene as well, and her face contorted in a look of sheer horror when she saw the extent to which Geoff had been hurt.
"Oh my god! What the hell happened?" She cried.
"That big bird thing came up and attacked me while I was getting the flag." Geoff told her. "These are gonna make some cool scars."
"No, not cool!" Courtney said. "You could have been hospitalized, or worse! Think of all the people waiting back home who you'd hurt if something happened! Think of how Bridgette would feel."
"Man, when you put it like that it's a real downer." Geoff sighed.
"Yes Geoff, it would be a downer." Courtney said, exhaling sharply through her nose. In, out. In, out. Her look softened and she put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm only trying to protect you. I promised Bridgette, and I'm a woman of my word. Just promise you'll be more careful next time, okay?"
"Right on. Careful. Gonna work on that."
"Alright campers, that's enough messing around." Chris announced from the helicopter. "A boat has been dispatched to pick you up. Watch here for it, and we'll get your butts back to the island. McClean, out!"
For the next few minutes the campers dispersed along the beach, sitting down and relaxing wherever there was space. The damp sand soaked through their clothes, but it was that or the slick surfaces of rocks strewn along the beach. This was the least uncomfortable option.
It was here that Beth could finally reunite with Gwen, no longer dictated to be enemies by decree of the challenge. After seeing the harrowing dash up the cliff, Beth was more than a little concerned, but that was second on her mind to the real worry she had about her two friends who had been chained together.
"You okay?" Beth asked.
"Yeah I'm fine." Gwen said, looking up from some small bones she'd dug out of the sand. "Damn bird left me alone once it saw Geoff so I didn't get scratched up to bad."
"That's good." Beth said. "It looked pretty scary up there."
"It was." Gwen nodded. "Still better than being back down in that wreck."
"Oh, I'm sure." Beth agreed.
The small talk was meandering into nowhere. She wouldn't get the answers she needed by beating around the bush like this It was time to rip off the bandaid.
"So uh…how was spending the day with Zeke?" Beth asked. "You two didn't have much trouble, did you?"
"Trouble?" Gwen shook her head. "No trouble at all. We did pretty good, once we…figured it out."
"Figured it out?" Beth repeated.
"Yeah. Like, he's an alright guy, or at least I think he's trying to be. Even though he came from a pretty awful place. And he learned a bit about me too. I think we're cool now."
It was a cryptic response, but Beth's eyes lit up as it all came together with the last part. "That's great!" She clapped. "Finally, my two besties, getting along!" She paused as hearing it aloud made her realize how it sounded. "Oh, I mean uh, my two besties still in game. Lindsay, you're still also my bestie, lots of love!" She said, waving to one of the cameramen. "Oh, and Katie too, you're also a bestie. And Sadie, if we ever got the chance to hang out I'm sure we would have been too."
Gwen couldn't help but break down in a fit of laughter. Even now, after so much confidence gained, Beth was still a dorky people pleaser. At least this feud would now permanently be behind them, and they could focus on winning and getting home from this awful show.
In a confessional, which would be recorded hours beyond, but shown mere seconds after the conversation, Gwen got her thoughts out a bit more honestly.
"So like, Ezekiel's alright I guess. If he is faking it, he's doing a really good job. I couldn't tell. And if he really is getting better well…good for him. I don't think I'd ever wanna hang out with him, just the two of us, but as a friend of a friend he seems…good to have." Her expression turned grimly serious all of a sudden. "But if he crosses Beth, ever, they will never find the body."
The odds of that being the case were significantly less now that Gwen had said that while being recorded on camera. Still, maybe she didn't actually think she'd ever have to eliminate Zeke in such a fashion, and was only saying it as a statement of loyalty to her friend. Or maybe she thought it was a badass and edgy thing to say. Likely, it was some mix of all three options coalescing together. To put this tangent to a conclusion, Gwen never would kill Ezekiel, either in this season or in any of the years she lived beyond it.
Without much ceremony the boat came and plucked them off that dreary shore. The trip back was quiet, filled with the sort of meaningless small talk that always preceded an elimination. Once on Wawanakwa, Geoff was led to the infirmary, with Courtney accompanying him.
Heather had strategy on her mind from the moment that the immunity, which should have rightfully been hers, had been stolen by an idiot and her seditious former toady. They were almost certainly conspiring to throw her out now that they had the chance, and so her only hope lay in a concordance with Geoff and Courtney. So, she loitered outside the infirmary, waiting in the cover a large tree.
When they emerged, Geoff's arm was bandaged up and the scratches on his face had been stitched together. He looked rough. Heather hoped they'd drugged him up with something good so that he'd be more pliable than usual. Courtney on the other hand, did not look happy to see her skulking around.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded.
"I've come to talk strategy." Heather said. Dancing around the issue was only going to make Courtney suspicious. Best to cut to the chase as quickly as possible. "You're probably putting together a list of who you want to kick off tonight, aren't you?"
Courtney narrowed her eyes at Heather. "Give me one good reason why you shouldn't be at the top."
"Braceface and homeschool." Heather replied. "They're totally like, a thing. Don't let her fool you with that little friends act, that's just to smooth things over with her new BFF, Gothy."
"In English please?"
"Those two are headed to hookup city, and everyone knows couples are just stronger alliances. Get rid of me tonight, and those three will pick you two off at the next two ceremonies. Then they ditch Gwen and take each other to the final two. I bet they even plan to split the money."
There was a long pause as Courtney looked Heather over, skepticism written all over her face. But there was something else too. The way she leaned towards her and took a few steps to close the distance between them suggested curiosity that she hid behind her expression.
"So what are you suggesting?" Courtney asked.
Heather was thrilled, but her expression didn't move an inch. She had an opening, no matter how tentative. "We all vote for homeschool sexist loser. As much as I'd like to make Beth pay right now, she has immunity." She said. "So that means it's gotta be him. Either one of us could kick his butt in a tiebreaker. You have all those skills you harp on about from being a CIT, and I'm basically the greatest player to ever step foot on this island. We'd crush him into the dirt."
Whether or not the flattery had landed was difficult to tell. What was obvious was that Courtney was weighing her options, and did so for the next minute or two without further comment. Finally, she gave a verdict. "...we'll consider it."
That made Heather's brow furrow in frustration. She needed commitment, not consideration. They all did.
"Consider it strongly, if you like winning." Heather insisted.
"Give us time." Courtney said, her tone dangerously close to annoyed. Heather had a hunch that if she pushed the issue further, she'd erode whatever begrudging mix of tolerance and respect Courtney held towards her.
"Fine." She said, putting on a thin-lipped smile. "I know you'll make the right choice."
She gave them a little wave and retreated to her lonely, one-person side of the girls cabin. She'd planted the idea in their heads, but it had yet to take. It would, of course. She had a way of getting into peoples heads.
Not far away, in the main lodge, Beth, Gwen and Ezekiel conspired in a much more harmonious fashion than Heather had with Courtney. Their goals were exactly the same. This late in the game, all of them saw a real chance of winning in their future, and nobody was enough of a fool to squander a chance at a hundred grand. Even one of the lesser prizes for higher placements was worth fighting for.
"So, guess it's gotta be Courtney or Heather huh?" Gwen said. "I say it's time we finally put the queen bee in her place."
"Yeah, down with Heather eh!" Ezekiel pumped his fists. "She's as mean as a snake, let's show her what for."
They turned to Beth expecting agreement, but were surprised to see her pensive and hesitant.
"I'm not so sure guys. These shows usually end with a jury vote right?" Beth pointed out. "And Courtney is friends with Bridgette, who is friends with almost everyone, which means she might pull a lot of votes. Nobody likes Heather. If we keep her around, and one of us doesn't make the final three, then maybe we can win just because nobody would vote for Heather."
The point was well made, and Gwen looked considerably impressed. "Wow Beth, I didn't know you were such a big fan of these shows."
"Oh, I'm really not." Beth shook her head, turning a little pink-faced. "I just catch a bit of Survivor from time to time. I've never seen a whole season really. But I did see a finale once and I remembered the jury thing."
"So, it's Courtney then?" Ezekiel asked.
"I'm down for it." Gwen shrugged. "She's a serious competitor, and crazy ruthless." She said, pausing for a moment. Should she tell Beth and Ezekiel about Courtney's plan to frame Owen? The plan she was part of.
It was best she didn't, she reasoned. It could wait until they had ousted Heather. All agreed to target Courtney, but only Gwen quite realized how seriously dangerous she could be when pushed. Hopefully, that wasn't something they would have to worry about much longer.
As the elimination drew nearer, so did more hellish weather. The clouds that rolled in from the distance were not so much a canopy of gray, as they were a solid wall that stretched from the ground to as far in the sky as they could see. Within this oncoming mass, thunder pealed rapidly, delivering a distant boom every few seconds and backlighting the huge volumes within the cloud.
Perhaps even more telling than that, was Chris calling the elimination early, while there was still fading twilight illuminating the campgrounds. wThe wind howled across the little hilltop, making the fire flicker and dance vigorously. The orange light bounced off the rippled surfaces of the water puddles, refracting in every direction in a fierce spectrum of colors.
The strong gusts whipped Chris's bangs across his face, giving him a spontaneous and unwanted makeover to look more ominous. Just out of view of the camera, some interns tried to maneuver a large piece of drywall to shield him from the storm, but with the wind coming from so many directions it was only a bandage solution.
"Campers, I don't want to be here any more than you do." Chris said, holding a bag of marshmallows instead of the usual plate. He had tried to put five marshmallows out, but they had been immediately carried off by the wind. "So I'm gonna make this quick. Beth, Geoff, you have immunity so come up and get your marshmallows."
They went up and got their sugary prizes without much fuss.
"Now, Heather and Gwen. You two are safe tonight, so come up."
With that out of the way, they were down to their final two. Courtney and Ezekiel slowly looked over each other, and as that sense of Deja Vu settled in, Chris was now in his element. He had something to work with.
"Now isn't this a bit familiar?" The host remarked coyly. "Ezekiel, your sexist comments may have been forgiven by some, but maybe some others remember the bitter taste it left in their mouths. And Courtney, you've shown your fellow campers what a powerhouse you are at both strategy and challenges, making you a prime target."
"I choose to take that as a compliment." Courtney crossed her arms and tilted her chin up.
"Whatever lets you sleep at night," He shrugged. "Doesn't change that you're still on the chopping block."
The two stared at each other, much like they had done before. The first night on the island flashed vividly in their minds. It had been a much warmer, calmer night than this, and they had been different back then. Courtney was no longer a humiliated little miss cyclops wearing a comical rubber hat to advertise to the world she had let her team down. Ezekiel was no longer the same clueless homeschooled boy, ignorant to the ways of the modern world.
So too, had the situation around them changed. No longer did they await the judgment of near total strangers, made on the basis of a fleeting first impression. They knew these people. Sitting around the fire were teammates, enemies, allies, rivals, and even friends. From all that, they could anticipate where the loyalties of every camper present lay. They looked at each other, no longer fearful, but knowing. Chris saw it too.
"I think both of you can see where this is going." He said. "Each of you has received three votes tonight. Tonight, we have our first tie, and not a lot of time to settle it in." He glanced towards the horizon and the approaching storm.
"Follow me." He motioned.
The campers stood up and fell in line, as Chris turned away from the fires and headed down towards the dock. "When I saw the votes for tonight's ceremony, I knew what the tiebreaker had to be."
In front of the dock they were greeted by several interns, finishing work on a pair of hot tubs. The familiarity itched at the back of Courtney's mind, and Chris waited until he finally saw the lights flicker on in her eyes with recognition before he continued speaking. The reaction was just too good to miss out on.
"Courtney, Ezekiel. You two, plus Geoff and eight other losers who are no longer with us, failed to build a hot tub on your first night here on the island. Which put both of you up for elimination, in the very first ever bonfire ceremony on Total Drama Island." Chris motioned for them to step forth. "Now, to survive this elimination, we're going to turn that first challenge on its head. Whichever one of your can demolish your hot tub first, gets to stay on the island, for a shot at the big one-hundred grand prize. The loser gets to take a boat home, and never come back. Ever."
Beth made a motion to pass her crowbar to Zeke, but Chris stopped her with a warning look.
"Each contestant will only use their bare hands, just to keep things fair. And by fair, I mean painful." Chris said. "Don't worry, we've pulled out most of the screws, so all you need to do is rip these bad boys to shreds."
"You got this." Beth whispered to Ezekiel, giving his hand a light squeeze. "Show them what you got, eh?"
"Thanks. I'll make you proud, I promise." He nodded, giving her hand a light squeeze back.
"She's your friend, not your Mom." Gwen laughed, giving him a playful shove against the shoulder. "Now get out there. You've got a marshmallow to collect."
Opposite of them, Geoff put an assuring hand on Courtney's shoulder.
"No offense to Zeke, he's a real homie but, you're totally gonna whoop him." Geoff laughed.
"Glad at least one person in this game still has my back." Courtney smiled through pursed lips. "Is your arm doing okay?"
"Yeah, docs wrapped it up pretty good." Geoff gave her a thumbs up with his other hand. "Don't worry about me, I got that sweet immunity. You gotta get your head in the game."
"Oh, trust me Geoff." Courtney's faced steeled with resolve as she turned towards the tubs. "My head is always in the game."
"Don't lose." Heather waved, providing the absolute minimum token support necessary for her part. Really the whole situation was a win-win for her. If Courtney won, she was that much closer to reaping revenge on Gwen and Beth, by taking out a key ally of theirs. If Courtney lost, one of the biggest threats in the entire game was out. There would be the small issue of Heather being outnumbered by Gwen's little posse, but she remained confident that he could drive a wedge between them if it came down to it. She was good at that.
Courtney and Ezekiel stood in front of their respective hot tubs and waited the signal to begin. She stared him down with all the confidence of a young woman who firmly believed herself a future prime minister and law school graduate. He looked back at her with determination of his own, tempered by nervousness and uncertainty that he forced down.
"Campers, you challenge begins in three! Two! One!" Chris sounded the air horn. "Begin! Rip and tear!"
At the same time they started going at it. Ezekiel started on the inside and worked his way out, methodically pulling at each plank. Courtney began on the outside, ripping the water pump off its mountings and tossing it aside. The race was a dead heat at the start, with both opponents being equally matched.
"Looks like homeschool's putting up a good fight, but can he match Courtney's fierceness?" Chris narrated.
Just because the fasteners were mostly pulled out didn't mean the whole thing simply peeled apart as easily as a banana. Many parts were tightly bound together by friction, and with no tools to help dislodge them the only way they were coming out was by force. Courtney's hands gripped tightly at one of the wooden plants that made up the exterior of the hot tub, her palms burning as they dug into splinters. She tossed it aside with many of the wooden shards still embedded in her skin, but she dared not stop to pick them out. She grabbed the next piece and simply fought through the searing pain.
Ezekiel was close behind her, and likewise was putting speed over comfort to make sure he came in first. A stuck pipe was met with more and more forceful pulling, until it jerked loose and clobbered him right in the groin. He doubled over in pain, gritting his teeth as he struggled to fight it and get his hands on the next piece.
"Ouch! That's gotta hurt." Chris winced. "But this crazy kid won't stop for anything! Not even smashing his kiwis can keep him from chasing down that win!"
Such determination was a quality of his that could take him to much darker places than these, if left unchecked and unguided. He labored ignorant of the dangers which his own soul might lead him towards.
"And after a serious blow, Ezekiel looks like he's catching up!" Chris said.
By now the hot tubs had been thoroughly dismantled into piles of rubble. There was more destroyed than remained to be destroyed yet, but it wasn't over until it was over. Despite both having their stumbles, it was Ezekiel whose pile of intact parts grew smaller, faster.
"What's this? Courtney falling behind?" Chris gasped in feigned shock. "Will the reigning queen of the Bass be dethroned by the lowly homeschool? It looks like that might be the case."
Come back a winner or don't come back at all. Those were the words that Courtney had learned to live her life by, and now victory seemed to slip ever further from her grasp with each passing second. How could she let this happen? If she'd just gone to the others and convinced them to vote for Heather this would have never happened. No, if Heather had just cooperated and let her lead from the start, they wouldn't be up for voting.
No, she couldn't blame anyone else. She only had herself to blame for her predicament. The mantra echoed in her head, drilled into her over the years until it arose without prompting. You don't want to be a disappointment, her mind scolded her. You already are, her cynical inner demons snarled. Look at you, they said, struggling to outpace some barely literate troglodyte who crawled out of some nowhere Alberta shithole.
"I did not….come this far…to leave now." She growled.
Anguish flashed into rage. Courtney's blood boiled in her veins, and she bellowed a war cry that rose above the howling winds still battering them mercilessly. She tore into the remaining pieces of the hot tub with renewed vigor, not so much disassembling the remaining pieces as violently dismembering them. Pieces of hose and covers were ripped away in chunks, like pieces of flesh torn from a carcass by a ravenous predator, brackets and mounting plates clattered to the ground twisted like broken bones.
At the end of it, Courtney beheld her work with bloody palms and sweat streaming down her face.
"We have out winner!" Chris declared. "Congratulations Courtney, you get to stay another night on the island."
Geoff was the only one who clapped and cheered for her. Heather put in a little golf-clap for show, but it was only Geoff who put in the work of six people for enthusiasm.
Ezekiel's shoulders slumped. He was only seconds from finishing, but he couldn't get those seconds back.
"Zeke, my man, I'm afraid this is it for you." Chris said. "Gotta say, I'm kinda shocked this didn't happen sooner."
"Darn." He sighed. "Well at least I get to go back to my trailer right?"
"It'll be shipped to your home at the end of the season dude." Chris replied. "As for now, you gotta get your butt going back to- well, I'm not at liberty to say." He winked at the camera. "Say adios and get your butt back on the boat."
Beth rushed up to him and threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. "I'm gonna miss you." She sighed. "It was nice getting to talk to someone like back home."
"You too." He said. "I wouldn't have made it this far without you. You were seriously amazing."
"Heh, who? Little old me?" Beth's blush was masked by the failing twilight as she let go of him. "Well, you're always welcome on my farm. Any time, just swing by." She winked, blowing a kiss at him.
He caught it just as she stepped back, and Gwen came to say her piece. She very obviously wasn't about to hug him, but she did offer a hi-five, that he gladly accepted. "Tough break." She said. "Bummer we couldn't hang out more."
"Just glad we could square things away between us eh." Ezekiel said.
"Yeah. Maybe we'll see each other around."
"Oh, definitely." He nodded. "Unless you win I guess, then you won't get sent to-"
"Ahem." Chris loudly coughed to interrupt. "Someone is about to be in violation of their non-disclosure agreement."
"My bad sir." Ezekiel shook his head apologetically
Lastly, Geoff came up and gave Ezekiel a heartfelt fistbump. "Bro, I am so proud of you. You came to this island and were like a total knob. But now, you're pretty rockin. You gave my homie Courtney a serious run for her money. Respect man."
"You too eh. If we ever meet again, you gotta send me more of that rave music man, that stuff goes hard."
"I got loads of it dude. Now get going man, shit's getting seriously gnarly out."
"Uh, right. Goodbye everyone! Arrivederci eh!" He waved as he climbed aboard the boat.
"Au revoir, homie!" Geoff waved.
"Take care!" Beth called after him as the boat revved the motor up and started on its journey into the choppy, storm-tossed waters of Lake Wawanakwa. The five remaining campers then wasted no time heading back to the cabins. There was no order to wrap shooting for the night, it wasn't necessary. The minute the boat disappeared the camera crews were working frantically to get everything packed up and stowed securely for the incoming torrential downpour. They'd seen the forecast, they knew what was coming.
The campers were scrambling back to their cabins as quickly as they could. Lagging at the back of the pack was Courtney, who was still sore and a little winded from saving herself in the tiebreaker. She picked splinters out of her palms as she walked along. As much as today had sucked, at least the worst of the night had finally passed.
Then a single water droplet splashed against her bloodied palm. And another, followed by more of its kind in rapid succession.
It began to rain.
