Author's Note: This has easily been the longest chapter of the fic so far, and with more character interactions coming up I'm almost expecting this to not end up being the longest by the end of the fic. This chapter also breaks 30,000 words for the whole fic as well, which is something that I wasn't expecting to happen originally so yay. =)
With that being said, I hope you guys all enjoy this latest chapter.
Chapter Nine
It was the day after Ezekiel's introduction towards the rest of the new cast at the Playa Des Losers, and he still couldn't quite believe everything that was happening since his 'departure' from Boney Island.
For once he had been able to have a comfortable night's sleep for what felt like years, he admittedly had never gotten used to the rocky surfaces of the mines of Camp Wawanakwa or Boney Island, the nest he had built in his now former home had been a step up, but nowhere near close to the comfort of the resort.
Damien, despite his initial worries over Ezekiel's mental stability and closeness to Lauren, still had the decency to help Zeke find replacement sleep attire, finally allowing him to remove the same old clothes he had on him since the plane, even if it were only temporarily. He still wondered how much of this was Damien being a decent person and how much of it was due to Lauren's insistence, oh well, he had plenty of time to question that whilst the season was still going.
He glanced down at his restored clothing, grateful to Lauren for being able to help patch in as many of the holes as she could. It wasn't perfect, the tears on the edges of his hood and the bottom of the hoodie were still there, and there was no way of removing the charred marks on his toque, but he still really appreciated the effort the Scary Girl went into restoring his appearance.
He tried his best to navigate his way through the halls of the Playa towards the medical room, the doctors were already there waiting on him for the first dosage of the cure. He was also sure that those two guys who'd been injured were also there, Ezekiel still feeling a little nervous about encountering more people, however from what little he had been told about Wayne and Raj, they sounded like decent people.
Ezekiel turned a corner, almost at the medical room when he ended up colliding with someone, Ezekiel being knocked down whilst the other person stumbled backwards in surprise. Ezekiel started to stammer an apology when he heard the other voice grumble angrily, "Great… It's Zombie Boy."
He looked up to see Axel glaring down at him, looking really annoyed at his mere presence, the survivalist looked around briefly, scanning the hallways to see if Lauren was nearby, assuming that she would be sticking with Ezekiel like she had been since their arrival.
Realising that they were in fact alone, Axel glared at the Feral Homeschooler once more, her words sounding restrained, like she was repulsed to even have to deal with him. "'Scary Girl' or whatever her real name is may have tricked the rest of them into believing that you are capable of healing, but I can see right through you Zombie." She stated angrily.
She took a menacing step forward, towering over Ezekiel, who glared straight back at her "I've trained to deal with the likes of you my whole life! If you even think of stepping out of line I will personally end you Zombie!" She threatened him, Ezekiel responding with a growl.
Axel narrowed her eyes at him, pushing him back down to the ground before storming off down the hallway. Ezekiel slowly got up, glaring in the direction that she left.
"W-What's her p-problem eh?" He said slowly to himself, taking a few moments to compose himself as best he can, before resuming his trek to the medical room. His thoughts however were starting to sour slightly seeing how hostile some contestants were going to be.
Unbeknownst to either Ezekiel or Axel, Lauren was hiding around the corner, having heard the small exchange between the pair. Having originally intended to go and support her closest friend in his recovery, her thoughts instead started to take a different direction as she started to head in the direction that Axel went, a dark look forming in her eyes as she smiled widely.
The medical room was a lot brighter in comparison to the rest of the resort, white walls, white tables, white cupboards, white beds, it was such a drastic contrast to the rest of the resort. The tables were quite messy, having various medical supplies spread across them, along with a small wooden box labelled simply as 'important'.
One doctor was testing a syringe as Ezekiel was sitting on one of the beds, looking anxious about the possibility of the cure working or not. Across from him were the unconscious duo of Wayne and Raj, having already been treated for their injuries sustained in their last challenge, and were currently just sleeping off their concussions.
"Before I administer this first dosage to you…" The Doctor began saying, "I must let you know that this isn't a 100% cure that we've been able to develop."
"B-But Chef said t-that it w-worked just fine on D-Dakota?" Ezekiel stammered out.
"Sorry I should rephrase that, what I mean is that Miss Milton didn't recover one hundred percent from her mutation. This is what we told Mr Hatchet when he contacted my employer, we were able to restore her to her human form, however the super strength from her time as 'Dakotazoid' was still there, and parts of her appearance like her hair and eyes were only partially restored." The Doctor explained.
"So I c-can still look n-normal but I'll k-keep some traits that I h-have now?" Ezekiel asked them.
"Most likely, If I had to guess the acidic spit you gained from the mines will likely stay, however any deformities from your time on World Tour we should be able to fix, minus permanent damage like the wounds to your ears. However I cannot be sure of it until we start administering the cure." The Doctor mused.
"O-Okay then, I-I'm ready eh." Ezekiel said.
The Doctor nodded in response, turning to the wooden box and opening it, pulling a vial with a purple liquid inside, they stuck the syringe into the vial and extracted the liquid, motioning for Ezekiel to roll up his sleeve. When they found the correct vein, they injected the serum into Ezekiel's bloodstream.
For a moment things seemed fine for the Feral Homeschooler, his arm felt a little sore but otherwise nothing was wrong. Suddenly the world shifted, and he found himself lying in the bed, the doctor gone from the room.
He sat up feeling extremely tired and looked around lazily. The box containing the cure was gone from the table, presumably being put back into storage for the time being now that he'd been administered the first dosage. More notably, the pair of Wayne and Raj were now wide awake, casually talking to each other, completely unaware that the third member in the room was now conscious.
Not knowing what to say to them, Ezekiel tried to quietly shift his position to try and make a quiet escape from the room, only to accidentally knock over one of the empty vials, alerting the Hockey Bros to his presence.
Wayne was the first of the pair to react, smiling casually to him. "Hey Rajie, the green guys awake, sup eh."
"Do you have like, severe food poisoning or something since you're green?" Raj asked him, unsure about his current state.
Ezekiel blinked, this wasn't how he thought this conversation would have gone, quickly realising that maybe these guys hadn't seen the previous seasons. "N-Not really? I just had an i-injection and I guess I p-passed out eh." He eventually responded.
"Dude, these hospitals must be hardcore to do that." Wayne joked.
"I know right." Raj agreed.
"It's a pretty small hospital though, I thought there'd be more patients." Wayne said, starting to scratch his head only to wince slightly when rubbing a bump on his head.
Ezekiel blinked again, did he not know that he was at the resort? He opened his mouth to respond only to be beaten to it by Raj.
"Dude I don't think this is actually a hospital." He said sheepishly.
"I-It's not eh… You guys are at t-the Playa Des Losers r-resort, you guys must've been e-eliminated…" Ezekiel informed the pair.
Wayne's eyes widened in shock. "Aww man, seriously, bummer dude." He said sadly.
Raj smiled sadly, "I kinda already knew that, I left a message for Bowie before I left, I miss him…"
Wayne smiled widely, still remembering the events of the last challenge and how his best friend had come forward to him about his sexuality and subsequent relationship. He looked back over at Ezekiel, slightly confused about something.
"So you're saying all our friends from the season are here right dude?" He questioned Ezekiel, who nodded in response.
"So what are you doing here?" Raj asked him, also coming to the same conclusion as his best friend.
Ezekiel braced himself for potential rejection, knowing how concerned everyone else was about him being here, Lauren being the exception of course. "My n-name is Ezekiel, I-I was actually a f-former c-contestant on the show, one of the o-original ones. I-I'd been stuck on B-Boney Island for y-years after being driven i-insane by Chris, I'd o-only been found last week by L-Lauren by complete a-accident."
"Lauren?" The two questioned, having not heard the name before.
"T-The girl you guys c-called 'Scary Girl' eh." He responded.
"Oh her? That's real sweet of her to help get you off that island eh." Wayne said.
"Why couldn't she be that nice to us on the island instead of terrifying everyone…" Raj complained slightly, a small grin suggesting that he was teasing.
"She's n-not that bad eh. She's actually p-pretty cool when you g-get to know her…" Ezekiel responded.
"Pretty cool, or just Pretty?" Wayne teased him, a grin emerging on his face when he saw Ezekiel fail to stammer out a response, face completely red, getting a small laugh out of Raj.
"I'm just messing with you dude, you seem pretty cool yourself." Wayne said, cracking another smile which Ezekiel returned.
"Hey if you were on this show before, does that mean you're our coach?" Raj asked Ezekiel.
"Oh yeah Rajie, he totally is, just like our team captain for our hockey team." Wayne agreed.
"Eh?" Ezekiel said aloud, completely confused about what the pair were saying.
"Sorry, it's just that our captain was also on this show, and he told us about his time on here." Raj responded.
"He never told us about the elimination ceremonies though, we accidentally voted for ourselves the first time…" Wayne said sheepishly.
"At least y-you guys m-made it quite far eh…" Ezekiel told the pair. "I w-was first out in b-both of my s-seasons…"
Wayne winced slightly at this news, "Unlucky dude, maybe next time you'll have better luck."
Ezekiel sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, the wig suddenly feeling more uncomfortable, "I-I don't know if I w-would want t-to come back, or if I w-would be allowed…"
Raj elbowed Wayne slightly, "I don't think this is a good subject for him bro?" Raj whispered to him.
"I agree, let's try to move the topic away from the show, maybe he got to see some of Nichelle's movies?" Wayne whispered back.
"I don't think that will work, didn't he stay he was stuck on an island for a couple years?"
Wayne had to resist facepalming, "Oh yeah… whoops?"
"I-I can still h-here you eh?" Ezekiel called over to them, confused.
The pair looked sheepishly over to him, mutually agreeing to change the subject, and began talking to him about random things outside of the show. They talked for a while, the day passing by in the resort until after around an hour Nichelle burst through the door looking slightly frantic.
"There you guys are." She shouted, looking exhausted.
"What's wrong Nichelle?" Wayne asked.
"Sca… Sorry, Lauren and Axel are currently fighting." Nichelle said.
"What!" All three shouted, getting out of their hospital beds.
Nichelle looked towards Ezekiel, her expression looking panicked. "Ezekiel I need your help, I think you're the only one who may be able to calm Lauren down." She pleaded to him.
"O-Okay eh!" He responded, beginning to run out of the run, the other three following close behind.
*Around 10 minutes ago*
Lauren peeked around the corner, looking into the entrance to the resort's gym. Inside she could see two people in there, Caleb was there lifting weights whilst Axel was busy using one of the treadmills.
Lauren glared menacingly at the survivalist from afar, still angry about what she did to Ezekiel earlier in the day. She wasn't going to hurt her… much, but she was going to leave an impression that would force her to play nice from now on.
She looked around the area, taking care to not be spotted by either of the gym's occupants, trying to find any way that she could sabotage the treadmill Axel was using.
'Darn, why does everything in here have to be wireless, it would've been so easy to rip them out and watch the thing go haywire on her.' Lauren thought to herself, annoyed at the situation.
Taking a closer look at the treadmill (or as close as she could get without being spotted), she could see that it was completely touch screen based, if she threw something at it hard enough then maybe she'd get her desired effect.
'And if not then I'll take my leave before she could see who did it, with any luck she'll think it was Caleb anyway' She thought to herself once more, picking up a small weight to throw at the treadmill's screen.
Axel meanwhile was completely zoned out, too busy focusing on her workout to notice the Scary Girl creeping into the gym, picking up a weight and calculating a throw whilst trying her best to be completely discreet.
Caleb however had noticed Lauren's entrance, and began to shout to Axel about the impending danger, however he was too late, as Lauren throws the weight across the room with all of her strength, smacking the treadmill's screen and altering the controls of the treadmill, drastically speeding it up and sending Axel flying across the room.
Lauren smirked playfully, satisfied with her revenge on the survivalist, and turned to make her exit before Axel could recover. Unfortunately for her, Axel was quickly back on her feet and could see Lauren attempting to leave. Brushing off Caleb who had rushed over to her in concern, Axel charged the unaware Lauren, and tackled her to the ground.
"What was that for you creepy bitch!" Axel yelled at her, attempting to punch her with little success, the Scary Girl blocking any attempts from Axel to hit her. Lauren's face lit up in manic glee, her creepy grin plastered on her face.
Lauren grabbed Axel's arms and threw her upwards, giving herself time to get back up, realising that her attempt of being stealthy had backfired. She didn't give Axel any time to recover, leaping onto her shoulders and began scratching and clawing at her, Axel punching her legs in response, attempting to get a hold of her so she could throw her off.
"Woah guys, calm down both of you!" Caleb said, attempting to get in the way of the pair and separate them, only to be backhanded by a stray hand from Axel.
"Don't get in my way, I'll handle her." She said gruffly, finally getting a hold of Lauren and tossing her into some nearby weights, the Scary Girl groaning in pain at the impact.
Axel advanced forward, clearly angry with Lauren's attempt at hurting her, only to hastily dodge with widened eyes when Lauren started throwing the weights at her one by one. A couple shattering the windows leading outside, startling both Nichelle and Damien who were trying to relax by the pool.
Nichelle and Damien poked their heads through said window, seeing the chaos unfolding between the pair, Caleb looked at the pair with pleading eyes that one of them might help him separate the pair.
"I'll help Caleb, you go get Ezekiel, he might be able to help calm Lauren down." Damien said hurriedly to Nichelle, climbing through the hole made by the weight and attempting to pull Lauren off of Axel to little success.
Nichelle looked at the confrontation in worry for a moment, before remembering where Ezekiel was going to be, recalling about the cure for his 'mutations' that he was supposed to be taking at this point in the day.
She rushed off towards the medical room, not noticing Lauren breaking free of Damien's grasp and kicking Axel in the face, staggering her as the Scary Girl started to claw at her, cackling the whole time.
Axel was eventually able to get a hit in, smacking Lauren hard across the face, her neck making a slight cracking sound as she was launched back slightly, knocking herself and Damien over.
"Lauren! Axel! Please stop!" Damien pleaded, attempting to keep Lauren from diving back into the fight, only to be hit by Axel when Lauren dived out of the way, knocking the wind out of him. Lauren glared at Axel, leaping onto her shoulders once more, beginning to punch Axel repeatedly in the back.
"Is this about your stupid zombie that you brought here?" Axel shouted at Lauren, dropping backwards onto the floor, using Lauren as a cushion as her head hit the floor.
"You don't get to threaten him like that!" Lauren growled at her, yanking at Axel's hair, before punching her in the face.
Caleb tried once more to separate the pair, grabbing Axel and dragging her away, Damien doing the same with Lauren. The pair of girls both breathing heavily from their confrontation with each other.
Axel gritted her teeth as she glared maliciously at Lauren, the Scary Girl in question waving mockingly in response, Caleb and Damien collectively breathed a sigh of relief now that the dust had settled.
The doors to the gym opened, with Nichelle, Ezekiel, Wayne and Raj running in to try and separate the pair, only to see that the fight had already settled for the most part. Ezekiel ran over to Lauren and Damien, crouching down to meet her at eye level whilst the others went to calm Axel down.
"W-What happened Lauren?" Ezekiel asked with concern evident in his voice, hands placed on her shoulders.
Lauren looked away slightly embarrassed, "I overheard what she was saying to you." She admitted.
"What?" Ezekiel responded as Damien looked on confused.
"When you were going to the medical room, I overheard her threatening you and I wasn't gonna let her get away with it…" She admitted, slightly reddened from embarrassment.
"This true Zeke?" Damien questioned him, Ezekiel nodding slowly in response.
"Y-You didn't have to fight for me L-Lauren, I'm used to it a-anyway…" Ezekiel said to her, feeling bad that she'd gotten into a fight because he didn't stand up to Axel straight away.
She smiled softly at him, pulling him into a hug which he accepted immediately. Damien looked shocked at this, as did the others watching from across the room.
Unknown to everyone in the gym, MK was watching the whole thing from the broken window, a phone in her hands, having recorded most of the fight since Damien first intervened.
The video MK recorded quickly gained a lot of views, being quickly found and spread across certain Total Drama channels once it became apparent where this was taking place.
One fan was sat at their computer browsing through her many blogs and accounts trying to get the information on all the new contestants for the recently revived show when the video found its way to her, the purple haired girl eagerly watching through the fight between Lauren and Axel, soaking in all of the drama from it.
When it got towards the end she was shocked to see someone very familiar enter the scene, attempting to calm down the Scary Girl, and was even more surprised when the two embraced on camera, before they left the scene, Damien going along with them.
The girl immediately knew who she needed to call, "Cody!" she shouted, "Get over here, it's really important."
"What is it Sierra?" A short gap-teeth geek entered the room where the superfan was 'working', only to be surprised when she grabbed him and dragged him over to the computer.
"I was browsing the internet when I was sent this video of some of the new contestants, and look who was spotted with them." She explained, showing Cody the video of Lauren and Axel fighting, showing him the moment where Ezekiel runs in and comforts Lauren.
"Oh my god…" Cody let out in disbelief, "I-Is that really him? He's a-alive?" He stuttered out in complete shock.
"I'm going to find out where he's been for the last few years and I'm going to let everyone else know that we've found him. I know there were some of the others who really missed the guy." Sierra informed Cody, noticing how shaken he was about this revelation.
"Yeah…" Cody responded emotionally, still in complete shock, only for Sierra to hug him tightly.
"I know you missed him as well Codykins, but we can help him now that we know where he is, you'll have your friend back soon I promise…" Sierra said, comforting him.
"Thank you." Cody replied, smiling gratefully at his former stalker turned best friend.
Nightfall had once again hit the Playa Des Losers, and most of the contestants were standing at the dock waiting for the next eliminated contestant to arrive.
Axel and Lauren were kept as far away from each other as possible, Ezekiel preferring to stay near Lauren to keep her company. Meanwhile, Nichelle was keeping Axel distracted so another fight wouldn't break out on the dock.
The Drone of Despair quickly approached the resort, carrying someone that most people didn't really want to see, but who they were surprised didn't end up here much sooner.
"Really? I have to share this place with all of you… Aw fart nuggets." Ripper complained, being roughly dropped off by the Drone which quickly set itself down to recharge.
"Great… Another annoyance…" Axel said, rolling her eyes in disgust at the 'Alpha Male', who stuck his tongue out at her in return.
"Hi Ripper, we're gonna have sooo much fun together." Lauren said creepily, neck cracking as she tilted her head towards him.
Ripper shuddered in response, "Great, and Scary Girl's here too."
He then noticed an unfamiliar face standing next to her, "And who's this loser, was he so bad that he couldn't even get on the show." He mocked, laughing at his own joke, only to be shoved into the water by an annoyed Lauren.
She looked around to see raised eyebrows from several of the others, "What? He deserved that anyway for using Priya as a shield and mocking my friend." She said, confused. "If you want I could use a jackhammer on him instead…"
"NO!" Everyone else barring Ezekiel shouted at her, the Feral Homeschooler just opting to smile instead, glaring down at Ripper when he climbed back onto the dock.
"Whatever, you guys can't even take a simple joke anymore…" Ripper grumbled to himself, walking away towards the resort.
"How did he make it so far again?" MK asked the others.
"Because Axel and Lauren messed up in their eliminations and I was basically asking for it…" Damien explained.
"Plus our injuries meant we were forced to leave." Raj continued.
"Plus you were watching us poop on the confession camera." Wayne finished.
"I was not! You guys were tricked!" MK responded, irritated by their assumption.
"Shut it all of you. Nobody cares if MK has a poop fetish." Axel shouted completely done with the conversation, storming off herself in the process.
"I do not!" MK shouted after her, the others laughing at her expense as they all slowly started to head back into the resort.
End Chapter
Author's Note: I've got nothing against Axel as a character, in fact I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with her in the second season. I just needed someone to play a minor antagonist role out of the cast, having the girl who trained for a zombie apocalypse her whole life dislike the guy who had lost his humanity made the most sense out of the options available, and let's face it, not everyone is going to warm up to Ezekiel straight away, especially with Lauren hanging around him most of the time.
Also, having Axel dislike him for being a 'Zombie' is a reference to all those fanfics that had Shawn be afraid of Zeke for the same reasons.
On the flipside, Wayne and Raj were probably the most likely to be friendly from the start, Damien has slight issues due to his closeness to Lauren who he's still terrified of, meanwhile the others are currently on the fence. We'll see how the others react as they arrive at the resort.
Lastly we've got the introduction of another plotline in the older gen contestants finally making an appearance with them finding out that Ezekiel is alive, some of the contestants will be making appearances throughout the rest of the story, however I ain't going to say who.