When the island slowly faded into view, Chris could be seen on the dock. "Last time, on Total Drama Island, the campers finally got to relax with a challenge for a bit by visiting the beach. And by relaxing, I mean being thrown into another perilous challenge. They were forced to participate in different water events, each, with a different risk to one's safety. The entire way through, it was a rather close match." The camera flipped to various scenes of different campers winning. "However, something else was brewing under the scene the entire time. The Killer Bass had determined that sabotage was the only way to play." It cut to Jeremy kicking Xi off his surfboard. "And while the Screaming Gophers tried their best to keep it clean, it all came down to a boil during the tie breaker. After Mindy had previously knocked Catrina into the water, rendering her electronics useless." It cut to Catrina in the confessional, rapidly tapping away at her phone. "After a bit of coaching by Xi, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She tried to sabotage Mindy during the rematch, to mixed results. She would have walked away with the prize had it not been for Ashton, who crashed into both boats. In the end, the Killer Bass won their second challenge ever, sending the Screaming Gophers to the elimination ceremony. In an upset, Catrina wasn't the one that went home. Instead, Cameron was the one sent packing." It cut to him saying goodbye to everyone. "However, Marisa was unconvinced, especially after she met up with a cloaked figure." The camera cut to the meeting in the forest. "Will Marisa be able to track down exactly what happened? How long before Nila blows up on her team? And how long will Jared continue to fail trying to get Talia to notice him? All these questions and more will be answered tonight! On Total! Drama! ISLAND!" The camera cut away.

Forest

Marisa was currently trekking through the forest in the early morning. She didn't have a method on her person to investigate the tapes she had received. She wanted to use her laptop, but that wouldn't work for obvious reasons.

Confessional: Marisa

"The masked figure had to have gotten these tapes from somewhere. If I can find where that is, it's likely I'll be able to play them."

There were some parts of the island she hadn't been to, so she had a pretty good idea where this could be.

Soon, she stumbled upon it. A building in the middle of a clearing. "This must be where Chris and Chef hangout." She glanced around the field. Empty. Nobody was guarding this place. Maybe they didn't have to because of the cameras. Taking a deep breath, she moved closer, sticking to the trees. Cameron may be gone, but she was still employing her rogue tactics from the game. Once she had closed the gap enough, she made a run for it. She tried the front door, but she had no luck. "Dammit…" She mumbled out.

Of course something like this would be locked. Thankfully, that's not the only way in. Her eyes drifted to the side when she noticed one of the window panes was pushed out. It left just enough of a gap that she could sneak right in.

Once inside, she found herself in a studio. "Hmm…" She hummed out, looking around. There was a monitor to her right which had some controls, but she didn't have time for that. If she got caught, it would be over for her. Instead, she turned her focus to the real treasure here. The projector. It seemed to have an option for tapes just like hers, so might as well try it out.

Taking out the tape marked with her name. "I don't trust these… But if this shows exactly what I said, then it will be the truth." She put the tape in.

Marisa

The tape began with her sitting in the confessional. "I spoke to the rest of the alliance, and we all seemed to be in agreement that we should vote off Catrina. She lost us two challenges today, and she's honestly just a bad fit for the team."

Marisa froze up slightly. This was… exactly what she said. "They're… real…" She couldn't believe what she was seeing. That meant she had to move onto the next tape. The one marked Catrina. She put that one right in.

Catrina

She had a guilty look on her face. "I know I should be the one to go home… but… I…" She glanced off to the side. "I'm going to be voting for Cameron." Seems her mind was made up. "I still want to win this entire thing, so me going home is out of the question." She bit her bottom lip. "I can't believe I made a deal with the devil…"

These were all things that made sense… This didn't show her anything groundbreaking. However, that last comment did catch her attention. "Deal with the Devil…?" She repeated. That at least gave her a potential lead into this whole situation. And, she could always talk to Catrina. But how much could she trust this girl? She voted for Cameron, and for all she knew, she might be next on the list.

Life didn't give her a lot of time to think about that right now. She heard some footsteps outside the door, so she rushed back over to the window. Slipping out, she made her way back to the treeline. However, not without taking one last glance at the room. She saw a figure in there… but not someone that looked like an intern, Chef, or Chris. She wanted to go take another look, but an intern passed by the area, and she realised how pointless it all was. Besides, people might start asking where she was at the moment.

Confessional: Marisa

"I would have loved to have learnt more, but it's not worth the risk of having one of the hosts catch me. Or worse, my team. If they find out the information I'm learning, they might just vote me off.

Cafeteria

Another victory meant that the Killer Bass was blowing it way out of proportion. Jeremy raised his glass of water. "Hopefully we can keep this up. The eight of us are near unstoppable."

"I wouldn't really put it that way." Historia shook her head. "It was just one challenge, after all."

The surfer let out a sigh. "Why do you have to bring down the mood every time…"

"Hey, lay off, will you?" Enima narrowed her eyes. "It's good to have someone keep us grounded."

"Yes." Nila agreed. "It is always good to have a straight man."

Christopher raised an eyebrow. "But she isn't straight, nor a man."

"H-huh!" The scholar stood up. "Who told you about that first part?"

He blinked a few times. "You always stare at Mindy. You were looking at her when we were at the beach both times."

This got a smirk on the artist's face. "You like what you see~"

The scholar's face was now bright red as she slammed her hands on the table. "This is irrelevant." She turned around. "I need to get some fresh air."

"You know…" Jeremy looked around. "I've been meaning to ask… Has anyone seen Bella?"

There was a long pause before everyone came to the slow realisation. "H-huh!?" Christopher called out. "We have to go find her!"

Underwater Cave

Since the challenge two days ago, Bella had gotten herself trapped underwater. She had gotten too excited about all the fish and ran out of oxygen. "They didn't forget me, right?" She had set up a makeshift shelter with some of the stuff she had found.

Confessional: Bella

While this was technically a confessional, this was made up by some stuff she made. "I don't know why there's a camera down here, but it's allowed me to still make confessionals. Thankfully due to my survival instincts, I was able to make some food. Although, I need to be careful, since starting too many fires will expend all the oxygen in the cave."

Despite how confident she was, she seemed to slowly be losing her mind. "Someone…" She was rocking back and forth. "Help me."

Outside the Cafeteria

Historia had to get away from her team. Probably not the best idea, given how her challenge performance had been, so she might have to rely on her social game. But even that was poor.

"Hey." A voice called out from behind her. "You alright?"

She turned to face the voice, who turned out to be Enima. "What do you want?"

Rolling her eyes, she smirked at her. "Just trying to see if you are alright. You ran off, so."

Placing a hand on her hip, and huffing her cheeks. "So what if I ran out? I'm allowed to."

This got a laugh out of the mysterious girl. "Sure you are, but I'm allowed to come check up on you." Now to get to the root of the issue. "You seem to be struggling. I've checked your challenge performance, and you haven't really done anything for this team."

"Urk-" Historia glanced away. "W-well! I-" She had nothing to say. Every challenge she hadn't failed completely. "That's…" She held her arm. "You're right… None of the challenges have been well suited for me, so…"

Enima shrugged. "It's bound to happen. Not everything can be made for you. I'm sure there's going to be a challenge you'll be able to win for us."

The scholar remained silent for a bit, before letting out a sigh. "Why are you being nice to me? I haven't done anything to warrant it."

"Well…" Enima trailed off. "I just find you cute." She shrugged. "You're fun to tease, and I'd hate to see you go home so soon."

"I- what-" That caught her off guard, and her cheeks went back to being red. "I don't want you to tease me!"

"That's not how it works, princess." She shook her head. "But I was wondering about something." She crossed her arms, a more serious expression now. "I was wondering if you'd like to form an alliance."

"An… alliance? Why?"

Was she really not getting it? "Think of this way, if we get enough people, we can pretty much just vote off who we want to, which makes it so we're both safe. I don't see how that would be a bad thing."

She was right… Working together with someone would be better. She just wished it wasn't someone like her. "Alright, I can do that." There was no reason to decline it right now.

"Perfect!" That worked out rather well.

Cafeteria

Marisa had just returned from her morning excursion in the forest. It seems that her entire team had gathered in the cafeteria, but they didn't seem very social. "What's wrong with everyone?"

Normally Robin and Jack would be mid argument, but without Cameron, neither wanted to talk to each other.

Catrina didn't even say anything. She hadn't said anything since the ceremony. In fact, she was sitting alone.

"Hmm…" Xi hummed out, looking over at Marisa. "Guess people didn't like the outcome of the ceremony."

She had some thoughts about it, but she didn't want to say anything. "Well, he was kind of the heart of the group. Although…" She trailed off, narrowing her eyes. "I don't think he really interacted with everyone here. So it's weird to see everyone down."

Eleanor was the one to speak up. "I tried talking to everyone, but they didn't want to."

"Because someone on our team almost died." Xi explained, crossing his arms. He glanced over at Catrina. "It's only natural that we'd feel this way after that. All while the other team gets to enjoy their victory."

Arianna glanced at him.

Confessional: Arianna

"Yeah, let's go with that excuse. Not because half of the people here feel guilty or anything about the vote. Pathetic. Imagine coming to a show like this and feeling guilty about who you vote for."

The popular girl smiled. "Well, here's hoping things go better this time. Even after our two losses, we are still doing better than the other team."

"Exactly!" Eleanor smiled brightly. "If we start to get depressed now, we won't win at all."

"Fine. Jack finally called out. "I may have some thoughts about the entire matter, but I won't let that get in the way."

"Why not?" Robin called out. "You always let it get in the way."

He almost seemed to pop a vein in his head. "Now's not the time, Robin."

"It's always the time."

Still, Marisa wasn't convinced by anything. She slowly eyed Catrina, who had been sitting alone the entire time.

Confessional: Marisa

"If I'm to start anywhere, it's going to be talking to Catrina." She crossed her arms. "She made a deal with the devil, and I can only assume that means Xi. He's the only one that fits the bill, but I can't go talk to him yet." She glanced off to the side. "But still, given how she's been acting, she didn't want to have to make this deal. There's a chance I can get some information out of her."

She tried to walk closer to her, but this was completely interrupted by Chris, who called out to the campers. "It's challenge time! Please gather by the campfire!"

"Dammit…" She mumbled off, looking to the side. Maybe during the challenge.

Campfire

The teams had all gathered by the campfire, awaiting for what Chris would say to them.

"Alright campers!" Chris called out, hands behind his back. "Today's challenge is going to be a little different. For the most part, you've been working for either a score, or racing to get to the end first. This time, it will be a last man standing type of deal."

"But…" Jeremy trailed off. "We are missing-"

Chris no care. "The challenge today is a simple game of hide and seek. Both teams will try their best to hide around the island, all while Chef over here." He pointed over towards him, who had a large water gun. "Hunts you down."

"Huh…" Eleanor paled up. "What's the gun for…?"

"Unlike most games of hide and seek, finding you isn't enough for Chef here. You are only out if he manages to shoot you with the gun."

"It's water, right?" Marisa smiled. There was a long pause before she got shot with a large meatball, knocking her off her feet.

"That way you can't lie and say you didn't get hit. The team to be found completely will win immunity!"

Jeremy lifted his hand up.

Letting out a sigh, the host looked at him. "Yes, Jeremy?"

"I was wondering, but can the teams find the other members? Or are they completely out of the challenge?"

A smile slowly crept up on his face. "Even after they've been shot by Chef, they can help find other campers if they feel like it. As long as you don't pretend to have not been shot, everything is allowed."

This got some ideas in his head. "This should be fun."

Robin glanced to the side, thinking of some ideas.

"You have half an hour to think of a good place to hide!" Chris called out before leaving.

Killer Bass

They had half an hour to hide, which meant they should use this time to plan. "Alright." David called out. "It's probably best if we hide as far away from each other as possible. Maximise the time Chef takes to find us."

"That sounds reasonable." Nila nodded her head. "But also, we need to make sure we have a plan in case we are caught. Since we are only out if he shoots us, we should have plans to lose him."

"Lose him?" Historia narrowed her eyes. "He's probably faster than any of us."

Nila shook her head. "I have no doubt that I could outrun him."

"Then…" David got an idea. "Wouldn't it be better if that's exactly what you did."

"What… Do you mean?" The girl blinked a few times.

It was time to unleash his brilliant plan. "If you made yourself known by Chef, he'll hunt you down, right? Well, this is where you should try to find the other team. If you do that, you might be able to take out a few of them, raising our chances to win."

"But… that feels…"

Jeremy placed a hand on her shoulder. "I think you are putting too much thought into that." He smiled. "It's not sabotage if Chris specifically said we could do it. It would be sabotage if you held people out as a shield."

"But Chris didn't say we couldn't do that…" Christopher pointed out.

"Besides…" David smirked. "We have one last golden bullet. Bella. We don't even know where she is. Who's to say Chef would be able to find her."

"But that is its own issue." The trainee mumbled out. "We still have to find her."

The shady guy shook his head. "Who cares, as long as we win it should be fine." Seems he was morally bankrupt. "Alright, team, let's go."

Historia began to walk away, before being stopped by Enima. "Hey, we should have another talk."

Already? "Alright…"

Screaming Gophers

"Alright." Jared called out. "This challenge should be a walk in the park. We have the advantage as a team, so." He seemed hopeful.

"While that is true." Jack trailed off. "Isn't it more likely that they'd find us since we're more."

Marisa would immediately counter his point. "Yes, but you have to remember we can help Chef find the other campers. So even if some of us get found early, we'd still have the advantage, and more people would be on the lookout for the others."

"No matter which way you put it…" Jared nodded his head. "We have the advantage."

"Careful." Talia narrowed her eyes. "We don't want to assume we have the advantage just because of that. That's how we get cocky and lose."

"Urk…" He tipped his hat down.

Robin shook his head. "No, I think it's alright to be cocky. I think we are in the best position we can be in."

Confessional: Robin

"This Chef person doesn't exactly seem like the smartest person." He seemed confident in himself. "I think I can single handedly win this challenge for the team."

"Do we have any specific game plan…?" Xi crossed his arms. "I don't feel confident going in without some sort of plan."

"Do we really need a plan?" Arianna raised an eyebrow. "Not getting caught is a pretty good plan. I don't think we need to do anything else."

"I concur." Jack closed his eyes. "I may play a lot of games, but being a sweat for hide and seek seems a little too much."

"We should fight Chef." Robin suggested.

"Absolutely not!" Eleanor paled up. "He would kill us."

Jared tipped his hat down. "Maybe grouping up could prove beneficial. If Chef finds a group, he won't be able to get both people and it allows one player to escape. And that way, we are less likely to be found since we're not in as many spots."

"But we're nine. Unless we have a group of three… or someone on their own." Jack pointed out.

"I can go alone." Catrina pointed out. "It's probably best that way-"

"Robin already went on his own." Marisa pointed out.

"Bitc-" She started to call out before sighing.

Feeling this was going to be the best opportunity to talk to her alone, the journalist extended a hand. "You can team up with me if you want."

"Huh?" The DJ raised an eyebrow. "Huh… sure." She glanced away. "Do whatever."

Another challenge where Arianna could try and talk to someone one on one. She glanced over to the side, eyeing Jack.

Confessional: Arianna

"With Cameron out of the way, and based on how things have been playing out, Jack doesn't have an ally right now. He doesn't seem to care about Robin or Marisa that much. Which means it's my turn to just swoop in and take him."

"Hey." She approached him with a smile on his face. "We worked well last time."

"Last time we got lost." He put it bluntly.

Off to a great start. "Yeah, but if we're lost, there's less of a chance that Chef finds us since we'd be hiding in the middle of nowhere."

Jack crossed his arms, deep in thought. "Very well. I'll accompany you."

Jared already had a person in mind for who he wanted to team up with. He took a step towards Talia, but was stopped by Xi. "Would you like to team up?"

"Huh…" He was going to decline the offer, but he saw Talia and Eleanor walking away. "I don't think I have much of a choice, do I?"

"No, not really."

Confessional: Xi

"Especially after I convinced Eleanor to team up with Talia. For the time being, I'll try to keep the two separate. Sure, I convinced Jared to make a move, but I don't want the two becoming allies quite yet…" He looked over at the camera. "Besides, I doubt Talia would want to work with me. And I have less control over Jared. Eleanor is the better mediator."

Cafeteria

Robin's plan could only really work if he was alone. It would be weird if he was tagging along with someone else. Slipping into the cafeteria, he made his way to the back. "Hmm…" Chef would have had to make the spaghetti, so there should be some left. Especially since there's no way that gun had unlimited ammo. When he finally made it to the kitchen, he finally saw exactly what he was looking for. A large amount of spaghetti. All being made by a lone intern.

"Huh…" The intern glanced his way, but was ignored.

"Let's see…" Robin moved over to see the batches. They were still mostly hot. He might get a few burns from it, but that would be fine. Taking a bowl of the spaghetti, he splashed it all over himself. He held in his scream, staggering back a bit.

"What are you doing here?" This wasn't the intern speaking. It was someone else entirely.

When he turned to look at who was speaking, he saw Enima. "Oh, hello there." This wasn't part of his plan at all. "Chef caught me."

She eyed him up and down. "I'm not buying it."

"Alright, you caught me." He made his best attempt. "I don't think he's very smart, so I'm sure I can trick him by just dumping this all over me."

Raising an eyebrow, she responded. "Are you sure that's going to work? It looks like it hurts. Besides, now I know."

That was the difficult part. Now she knew. "And what are you going to do with that information?" Maybe he could silence her.

"Absolutely nothing." A smile overtook her face. "I want to see this play out. So you go do whatever you want, I'll tag along."

Well, that went against what he wanted. "Why would I let you tag along, we're on different teams. Besides, it would be weird for us to hang out if I appeared to have been caught."

She moved over to one of the bowls. "I could just drench myself in it too."

"Please don't…" The intern mumbled softly. Ignored.

Robin shook his head. "If you do that, I will rat you out."

"But wouldn't you be ratting yourself out?" Enima pointed out. "Either way, you're stuck with me."

Confessional: Robin

"This might not be too bad. Because now if I need to, I have a literal human shield." Things were looking great for him today.

"Alright, fine. Dump yourself in burning hot spaghetti." He crossed his arms.

Well, not being one to turn that down, Enima lifted the bowl over her head and dumped it over herself. "Alright, let's head out now."

Confessional: Enima

Enima… in a confessional? Unheard of. "Obviously I'm just doing this with the intent of betraying him eventually. Maybe not right away, but if he's the last one of his team, I'm going to make sure I hand him to Chef on a silver platter."

Historia

Having broken away from her team right at the start, she was trying to desperately find herself a place to hide. She wasn't very fit, so she couldn't exactly climb up somewhere, and she wasn't going to hide under anything she considered dirty.

Confessional: Historia

"What am I supposed to do?" She crossed her arms. "I've never played hide and seek. My mom didn't want us hiding in random spots in the house. Besides, I didn't really have anyone to play with…" She trailed off, realising just how sad that was.

She stopped in front of the shed from the talent contest. No, too dirty. Then, she stopped at the docks. Nope, I wouldn't hide under there. Then, she arrived at the cabins- She would be at this for a while.

Dock

While Historia wasn't going to hide there, Christopher was really considering it. Looking out at the water, he was hit with a brilliant idea.

Confessional: Christopher

"Chef wouldn't check the water, right? The challenge is supposed to happen on land. Plus, the water will dissolve the sauce, so it's like I wasn't even hit." He paused for a moment. "That makes sense, right?"

Being a little smarter than average, he managed to find the scuba gear that Cameron used last episode. Since there was still oxygen in it, he figured he would be safe. After probably putting it on properly, he jumped right into the water. "Wow, this is a great place." He commented to himself as he let himself sink to the bottom. Then, a thought appeared in his head that he didn't bother to think of before. "How much oxygen does this thing have anyways?"

Catrina and Marisa

The two had been walking around in silence for a bit. Catrina not wanting to talk, and Marisa trying to figure out how to get this conversation off the ground.

"So…." She finally spoke up. "Feeling better after…"

"I don't want to talk about it." The DJ put it bluntly.

This was going to be harder than she thought. Letting out a small sigh. "You barely survived being eliminated. Acting like this won't help your case. Don't you think I'm trying to help you so you don't go home."

Catrina stopped walking, realising she was right. But still, some doubt in her mind. "Are you really worried about that? Weren't you close with Cameron."

She couldn't deny that. "I was. I just feel like it was a weird elimination."

"I voted him off." She admitted, walking forward. "So you should want me gone."

Why was she being so difficult? "You don't seem like the kind to campaign to have someone else voted off. Which means you must have joined up with someone else. More than half the team voted him off."

She stopped walking again. "I can't share any information with you."

Alright, for now it was a lost cause. But she wouldn't stop trying. "Let's focus on a hiding place." She hadn't really been paying attention to where her surroundings were. "Hey, isn't this the auditorium?"

"Yeah." Catrina turned to look at her. "I figured if we could get on top of the stage like the masked man, we could have ourselves a pretty good hiding spot."

That wasn't a half bad idea. "Then let's do that."

Of course, getting up there was the issue. "How did he get up here originally?" The DJ placed a hand on her hip.

Looking around, Marisa hummed out in thought. "I think he used a pulley system of sorts. They had thin strings attached to them, as well as in their hands. When they let go of the string, the weight pulled them up."

She had a confused expression. "Sounds complicated, let's find a ladder."

Letting out a sigh, the journalist shook her head. "We already wasted so much time." She glanced around at the curtains. "Hold on." She gave it a hard tug, but it didn't budge. "This might be dangerous, but I think we might be able to use this. I'll go first."

"But what if you fall?"

The journalist smiled at her. "Well, you'll catch me."

"Oh, alright." That seemed like a good answer. "Hey wait a second- What if I fall?"

Marisa began climbing up, pretending to have not heard her.

"HEY GET DOWN FROM THERE-" The DJ yelled out.

Ignoring her further, the journalist managed to make it to the top without any issue. "Alright. Your turn! I made it without much struggle."

Well, that was true. And Marisa seemed like a pushover physically, so if Catrina failed, that would be sad. "Alright! I'm coming up!" She gripped onto the curtain and slowly made her way up. Just like with Marisa, she managed to make it up safely. "Perfect."

"Now… We need an exit strategy."

Catrina blinked a few times. "You think too much."

Mindy

"Hmm…" Finding somewhere to hide was a little more complicated for her, given she was much taller than almost everyone here. The thing she had going for was that she could definitely reach places nobody else could. "Could just climb a tree." She glanced up at the nearest tree. "I don't see Chef being able to climb up something like that." She looked off in the distance. With Nila keeping him occupied, there was a chance that he ran past any of these trees.

Jumping up, she grabbed onto a branch and pulled herself up. "Long way to the top." That was fine. It meant she would be safer for longer.

Talia and Eleanor

These two had moved deeper into the forest. "Eleanor…" Talia spoke up. "Where are you taking us?"

"Oh!" She turned to look at her. "While Xi and I were collecting berries one day, we found a pretty fun looking cave. I thought it would be best to hide there."

The waitress raised an eyebrow. "But what if a bear lives there?"

"Oh… huh…" She didn't really think of that. "I'm sure we won't run into one." The chances were still pretty high.

"Speaking of which…" She's been meaning to ask this for a while. "You hang around Xi a lot. What is he like?"

This got a bright smile on her face. "He's really great. He's been helping me around the island. Nobody else really comes by to help me. And the only other person I get along with is you. In fact, he said I should pair up with you?"

"He did…?" That got her to raise an eyebrow again.

Confessional: Talia

"You would think that Xi would pair up with Eleanor if they were close. So why would he tell her to pair up with me?" She crossed her arms, looking off to the side. "Something feels fishy."

She quickly nodded her head. "Yeah! He said he wanted to pair up with Jared."

Confessional: Talia

She was already back here. "I'm going to have to talk to him about that, then. I don't trust Xi for a single second. Call it instincts from working in the restaurant business for so long."

"Did he give you a reason why?" Eleanor was being very open about all of this, so might as well extract as much information as she could.

The gardener shook her head. "No, he didn't really give a reason why. But they seem like good friends, so I thought it was for the best. Besides, it allowed us to talk here."

True, but that wasn't the important part. "Alright, just be weary of him. Don't do anything you shouldn't do."

What, like him controlling her vote? She would never allow that to happen. "Oh! We're at the cave now."

"I'll go first." Talia moved into the cave, making sure to inspect it. "No bear…" She mumbled to herself. "Alright, come on in!" It would be good for now.

Jeremy

Now, Christopher might have had the idea to hide in the water, Jeremy had his own idea. Hide, on the water. Holding his surfboard, he began to paddle his way away from the island. "Good luck trying to catch me, Chef." He was very confident in his surfing skills, given his label. But was even more confident that Chef wouldn't be able to hit him at such a distance. Unless he had a boat or something, but that was a boring solution. He had no idea where the others chose as a hiding spot, but he figured he could keep Chef distracted if Nila ever failed.

Arianna and Jack

These two hadn't come to a consensus yet. "He's going to look there." Arianna shook her head. "We should come up with a better place."

Jack crossed his arms. "But all the other spots are dumb."

She wanted to play nice, but just caving into every bad idea didn't really sit well with her. "Alright, then what's your idea of a perfect hiding spot?"

The perfect hiding spot. That was the question here. He brought his hand to his chin to stroke it. "We have to consider all the places Chef would most likely consider finding first. Any landmarks will be searched, so we should try and keep away from those."

Yeah, but finding a random hiding spot in the forest didn't exactly sound like her cup of tea. "How about this? We don't hide." Arianna crossed her arms.

He furrowed his brows. "That's even more absurd than everything else."

"Hear me out… We don't hide, and we keep moving. If we don't stay in the same spot, there's less chances he can find us. Besides, if we do that, we have the most escape options available to us. Just go in any direction."

Now that he considered that, it didn't sound like a bad idea. "Fine, we can go with that."

At least they came up with a compromise. But now, the real reason she wanted to pair up with. "I've been meaning to ask… What's your game plan for this entire season?" Might have been a bit more blunt than she would have liked, but she needed to get straight to the point.

Jack frowned slightly. "My plan? What do you mean? I think I've been doing pretty well for myself."

"You just lost an alliance member." She pointed out. "And you don't exactly talk to Robin and Marisa that much."

Jack crossed his arms, gripping his shirt. "You've been paying attention?"

Ohmygod was he fucking stupid? Those thoughts occupied her mind. "I don't think it takes a genius to notice you all hogging the table in the cafeteria."

"Hmm…"

Confessional: Jack

"It's true that Cameron going home was a major setback. Robin and I don't get along, and Marisa is more of a wild card. Besides, she seems to be doing her own thing." He glanced up to look at the camera. "If Arianna is suggesting a possible alliance, I could accept it. Though, I'm not sure her personality blends well with mine."

"And what do you bring to the table?" The critic asked her. "You haven't really done too much for the team."

Sure, she's been rather invisible for some challenges, but it's not like she hasn't been pulling her weight. "I think I've been pretty good when it comes to challenges."

He was unconvinced. "Really now?"

She wanted to keep her nice persona, but someone like Jack made it difficult. "I got us a point in the last challenge, and I was one of the people who didn't completely bomb the first challenge."

She had a point there. "Alright, I see." He didn't understand why he was being so picky. A potential ally who was willing to just throw themselves at him should be exactly what he wanted. "Alright. I'll accept the terms." He glanced the other way.

Perfect. She offered him a sweet smile. "You won't be disappointed."

Confessional: Arianna

"Good, now I officially have a person to counter Xi's numbers now. If I can just get working with someone else, I'll be finding myself within range to take him down at any time." She tilted her head to the side. "Although, if the chance works itself out sooner than I'd expect, I'd gladly take him out now."

David

The only person left of the Killer Bass who hadn't shown off their hiding place. "Hmm…" He poked his head out from behind a tree. "No, not here." He disappeared behind the tree, repairing from a bush a few seconds later. "No, not here either." He slowly lowered himself back into the bush. Next time he appeared, he was hanging upside down from a tree. "Nothing good is around this area."

Confessional: David

"Now, I know you might be thinking to yourself: "Really David? You haven't found a good hiding place?" To which I'd answer… I have. I just can't go there." He leaned back. "I'm not about to reveal my entire hand right away. For now, I have a brilliant idea."

Jared and Xi

"Any reason you wanted to talk to me." The cadet seemed suspicious of the entire thing. He wanted to try and form a closer bond with Talia. So, to be taken away like this…

Xi kept his hands in his pockets, silent. He glanced up to the sky, narrowing his eyes as the sun slowly rose above the treelines. Letting out a sigh, he spoke up. "Because it's unfair to keep her all to yourself. How is she supposed to form bonds with other people?"

He hummed in thought. "I suppose you are right. But still." He clenched his fist. "I would have loved to have talked to her."

The psychologist knew exactly what was going on. "Is it perhaps because you feel guilty about the vote?"

"Guilty…?" While it was true. He did feel guilty. But why would that matter in relation to Talia? "That's unrelated."

Sure it was. "Either way, out of the four of us, you and her are two of the more fit people. Myself and Eleanor aren't great runners." He had to change his reasoning. "If you pair up the two of us together, there's a chance we both get caught in one fell swoop… However, if we pair up with the two of you, we offer both of you a chance to escape."

"Are you saying you are going to sacrifice yourself for the sake of the challenge?" Jared tipped his hat down.

"Something like that." Xi crossed his arms. "I'd rather not ruin my suit, but I also don't want to risk going to the elimination ceremony. I feel it's a fair compromise. You were close to beating Nila last time, so you might be our only chance against her."

That was stuff he liked to hear.

Confessional: Jared

He had a smile on his face, despite his best attempt to contain it. "Being called the team's only hope really boosts one's spirit. If that's the case, I believe I can do this."

Nila

She had been standing behind Chef the entire time, watching him count up to a thousand. She had gotten bored around the forty two mark, but if this was the strategy her team wanted to implement, she wouldn't say no.

"Nine hundred and forty seven, nine hundred and forty eight, nine hundred- Ah forget it. A thousand." He was on the verge of insanity. "Ready or not, here I come." His voice was devoid of life. He turned around, only to look over at Nila. "Huh… How long you been standing there?"

"Since the beginning."

Well, he wasn't going to judge her in the slightest. Instead, he aimed the gun at her. "Well, thanks for making it easy for me."

Easy, it was not. She managed to avoid the shot. "Please. Something like this could not stop me this easily." Once she had a moment, she turned to run away.

"Hey!" Chef yelled out. "Get back here!" He wasn't going to let her get away. He needed revenge for the last time.

Good. It was working out exactly as they wanted.

Confessional: Nila

"The only problem is that I do not know where everyone else is. However, I can begin looking in the most common places." But realisation soon hit her. "I hope I do not lead him to the rest of the team."

Moving from left to right to avoid most of the shots, she ran right into the forest. She let her eyes scan the forest as they ran. She assumed the other team would play smart and not hide near all the landmarks, but it was still near impossible to figure out a good hiding spot. "Where would they…" She was interrupted when she had to duck from a shot.

"Get back here! You can't keep running forever!" She very much could. Taking his time to line up his shot, he narrowed his eyes. "I've got you now…" When he pulled the trigger, nothing came out. "Huh?" Already out? He only shot her twenty times! This gun sucked. "You win this round!" He turned around to make his way back to the cafeteria.

Nila took a moment to catch her breath. "No… Come back." She sprinted after him. The roles felt reversed now.

Kitchen

This might not be a bad place to hide. Historia moved into this place. This seemed where Chef would get to refill his ammo, which means he would come back periodically. It also meant that if he did come here, then he would have no more ammo.

"You can't be here." The intern called out, growing increasingly tired that people kept showing up anyways.

"Zip it. No area is off limits." While she was here, she might as well grab something to eat. Looking through the cabinets, all she could really find were crackers. Which would have to do if that was all that was available. They weren't half bad.

Suddenly, the door slammed open. "I need a refill pronto!" Chef called out before freezing. He slowly glanced from the intern to Historia.

She tried her best to stay incredibly still, and yet, she still slowly brought the cracker to her mouth. "I'm… I'm not here."

For the next half minute, the two were locked in a staredown. If either were to move, the other would surely follow.

Of course, the person who cracked was Historia, who dropped the box on the ground, and ran out.

Wasting no more time, Chef grabbed some more spaghetti ammo, dumping it inside his gun. "Get back here!"

When both of them had left the premises, Nila finally ran in. "Where… did… he go…?"

The intern, who was beginning to get really tired, lazily pointed towards the cafeteria portion of the building.

"Get someone else first!" Historia called out, running out of the building. "Our team is already at a disadvantage!"

"I don't care!" Chef kept following her. Unlike with Nila, one shot was all it took to get her down. "Gotcha!"

"UGH!" She tried to shake the sauce off, but it had ruined her clothes. "Do you know how much this cost?"

"Still don't care." He walked past her. Now, he just had to find that Nila girl again.

Catrina and Marisa

Well, now there was no way to avoid the conversation she wanted to have. "So, now that we're up here."

"Oh no you don't!" Catrina pointed at her. "If you start trying to talk about the vote again, I'm dropping down from here."

Marisa glanced down. "We're kind of pretty high up, you know."

"Urk-" She had a point. "Fine…" Seems it was going to be impossible to avoid it.

Finally, just what she wanted. "Who convinced you to vote for Cameron?"

Getting the biggest question out of the way first. "Xi did. He told me he had a deal to offer me." She placed a hand on her forehead. "He said it would save me from the elimination."

Marisa knew it would end up being him. "He was trying to save you? Why?"

Catrina frowned slightly. "I think it was less about saving me, and more about getting Cameron out. I didn't really ask any questions. I was only preoccupied with my own safety."

That was fair. "But still, if he was able to convince you, and then get four other votes…"

The DJ crossed her arms. "You know, I found it strange. Even if he could make a promise like that, I wasn't sure how he was going to pull it off. To see him manage to do it… I was stunned." She furrowed her brows. "But I'm afraid of trying to do anything against him. At any given point, he can view me as disposable…"

It was likely that Xi was going to be her next target. "Then…" Glancing up, Marisa thought of an idea. "Why don't we just get rid of him the first chance we get?"

Catrina froze up slightly, before slowly glancing at her. "Are you sure we'd have the numbers for that…?"

It was going to be rough, but she had hope. "If we include you, we'd have four total people. We'd just have to convince one more person, and we'd be set."

The question was who would be best suited to help them. Letting out a sigh, the DJ shook her head. "I don't want to go snooping around, because it might bite me in the ass."

"I get tha-'' She quickly grew silent as she heard footsteps from below.

Chef would walk up on stage, looking around. "Hmm…" He held onto his gun tightly. After surveying the area for a bit. That's when he finally took the opportunity to look up.

"You think he sees us…?" Catrina mumbled out before being blasted by spaghetti.

"Yes." Marisa called out as she moved further away. The only problem with a hiding spot like this was how to get down. Still, given that this building wasn't built the best, she could access the outside area from up here. "Oh, hey." She noticed a conveniently placed bush. She let herself drop down to safety.

Christopher

He had wandered down way further than he thought he would. In fact, he hit the ocean floor. "Huh…" He mumbled to himself. "This place is cool." He hadn't been somewhere like this before. And he was sure that Chef wouldn't even think of looking here for him. "But how much oxygen do I have?" Taking a glance over, he could tell that it wasn't much. "I need a safer place to hide."

After about a minute of hopping around, he eventually found a potential hiding spot! There seemed to be a small underwater cave. And if there was an air pocket, he was pretty much set.

After swimming for a bit, he finally found exactly what he wanted! Air! He surfaced, glancing around the area.

"Huh?" A familiar voice called out. "W-who's there!?"

When he finally found the source of the voice, he spotted Bella. "Oh hi Bella!"

Her concerned face slowly morphed into a smile. "C-Christopher? You're here to rescue me?"

"Rescue you?" Did she need rescuing?

Her expression slowly sank as she realised what was going on. "You didn't even know I was here, did you?"

"This place is great." He stepped out onto land, removing his helmet. "This is genius! Chef will never find us here."

She didn't like the implication of having to hide from Chef, so she wasn't going to bring up anything. "Hey, who won the challenge?" She felt the need to ask, given she went missing. "After Cameron beat me, I think we entered another losing streak." She wasn't sure, but looking at the team's record, it wasn't hard to believe that.

"Oh! We actually won! Nila, Jeremy, and Mindy carried us to victory!" He had a bright smile.

That was great news! So she hadn't been voted out at all. "And who went home?"

"Cameron!" Still, delivering news with a smile on his face.

That didn't make any sort of sense, but she also didn't care about whatever team drama was going on with the Screaming Gophers. "What challenge is going on right now?"

Setting down his helmet, Christopher sat next to her. "Hide and seek. Chef is trying to hunt us-" Oh that made sense. "-with spaghetti."

She blinked a few times.

Confessional: Bella

"The challenges always start off so normal, and then we have something like that. The same happened with the cooking challenge."

Confessional: Christopher

"This is genius! Chef would never think of checking the confessionals!" Despite this not even being the right confessional.

Campsite

After being shot, Historia wandered around, rather grumpily. She was mumbling stuff under her breath.

Confessional: Historia

"Just another challenge to prove what I already know…" She crossed her arms, glancing to the side. Her tone of voice was filled with anger, but her facial expression betrayed her.

After walking for a bit, she heard some talking. And some talking that shouldn't really be happening. "Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow, looking over at Enima and Robin. But something caught her eye. They had both been shot. "You two are out?" She had expected someone like Enima to at least make it far, but it had only been a few minutes since she had been caught.

Glancing over at the historian, she shrugged. "Chef caught us while we were arguing. Neither one of us wanted to share a hiding place."

Robin chuckled a bit. "Honestly, we both should have just left, but my ego wouldn't have let that happen."

Enima lazily pointed a finger at her. "Where were you hiding?"

"The kitchen, I didn't think he'd be back so soon, but he caught me by surprise."

The duo looked over at each other. Had they thought of this plan a little later, they might have been done for. "Hmm…" The mysterious girl took a step forward. "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself." She patted her head. "You aren't going to win any challenges."

What she received in return was a glare. "Don't touch me."

Robin shook his head. "She's just trying to be encouraging."

"Well, I need her to stop. Every time she does it, it sounds so condescending." Historia put a hand on her hip. "I can't tell what the hell she's doing half the time."

"H-huh?" Enima froze up. "I thought it was pretty obvious what I was doing."

"Either way, I'm not very fond of it." The scholar turned to walk away.

Robin watched her leave before turning his attention over to Enima. "What was all that about?"

After remaining silent for a few extra seconds, Enima finally spoke up. "Nothing, let's keep going." She began to walk away.

"Hmm…" He eyed the two girls, before following her.

Confessional: Robin

"Sounds to me like a flirting attempt gone wrong. Although, I can't quite say for sure. It's not like I've been paying attention to the other team. But let's get to the real point here. Most people are only worrying about making alliances with people from their team. I'll get one step ahead of them and start forming alliances with people from the other team. That way when the merge hits, I'll have a potential ally."

Nila

It took a bit, but she was finally able to track down Chef again. Although, he hadn't seemed to notice her yet. She didn't want to make herself known quite yet, so instead, she followed behind him.

Bit by bit, he entered the forest, which gave her much needed cover in case she needed to make a run for it. "Now where are they?" He took a glance at the ground, inspecting it. "Hmm… Into the forest." Seems he had caught wind of some campers. The question was… just which campers had he begun to track.

If it was someone from her team, she would need to stop him, but she didn't want to get in the way in case it was someone from the other team. Instead, she remained silent, and kept following him.

But from the looks of it, they seemed to be heading towards a cave.

Eleanor and Talia

Talia had moved herself to hide behind a rock. It's not that the cave was a bad hiding spot. It was just that… Yeah it was a bad hiding spot. But she didn't want to shut down Eleanor's idea completely. She glanced over at the girl, who seemed to be walking around the cave. "You should hide better."

"Oh! Maybe." She hid behind a rock on the opposite side of the cave. "You know, this is really fun. I only ever got to play with my youngest sister."

Confessional: Eleanor

"You want to know what Talia makes me think of? An older sister that I've never had. I've always had to be the oldest one, so I had to be the responsible one that knew everything. The only problem is that there's just so much I end up not knowing… But Talia is different."

"Shh…" Talia hushed her. "I hear footsteps…"

Quieting down, Chef would slowly begin to walk into the cave, with Nila very obviously behind him. "I can hear you…" He lied through his teeth. But fear was a great tactic. Slowly by slowly, he took a step forward.

Talia was getting ready to make a run for it, until her eyes landed on Nila. She hadn't been shot… so why was she following Chef…?

Eleanor was handling this differently. She wasn't sure what she should be doing. So instead she opted to panic instead. Another step, and she might make a run for it.

Chef took another-

She made a run for it. Her goal was the entrance, which Chef left unguarded.

Unfortunately, someone else had been guarding it. Nila blocked off Eleanor's escape attempt.

"H-hey!" She called out before being shot in the back.

"Gotcha-" Chef froze up, before narrowing his eyes. "You…" Standoff music began to play from an unknown source.

The military trainee would have humoured this attempt, but she didn't want to indulge him. "Catch me if you can!" She called out before running away.

"Get back here!" He ran out after her.

Once the cost was clear, Talia slowly came out of her hiding place. "Are you alright?"

Eleanor, who had been laying on the ground since she had been shot, slowly lifted a thumbs up.

The waitress glanced out of the cave. "Hiding behind Chef is a bit risky, but it seems someone was able to pull it off." She helped the gardener back onto her feet. "Let's get you washed up."

Arianna and Jack

If their plan was to get hopelessly lost again, they had succeeded.

"What is our plan if we want to run back to camp?" Jack crossed his arms.

Arianna glanced over at him. "Do we really need a plan? I think we're pretty settled in this forest."

The critic left out a sigh. "Yes, we are pretty set. However it would be nice to have a frame of reference. If Chef is chasing us, I want to know what direction we're running in."

Taking a look at the sun, which was directly above them, and thus useless, the popular girl let out a sigh. "Just trust me, we'll be fine." She pointed to what she could only assume was South. "We'll just run that way." If only she had snagged a compass from the second challenge.

Jack glanced in that direction. "Very well."

As always, he was hard to get along with. "Well, while we wait for Chef to catch us, should we talk about the game." She needed to know where his head was in all of this.

"Hmm…" He wasn't opposed to the idea. "We could do that. What exactly did you want to talk about?"

"Well, the game is social in nature. Which means we'd need to form bonds. But we should also be worrying about who to vote for." In other news, she just wanted to know who he'd be willing to vote off.

"Ah, I see." He crossed his arms before a smirk appeared on his face. "I'd be fine with almost anyone going home. The only one I might be a little sad with would be Marisa."

"Not even Robin?" She raised an eyebrow.

He shook his head. "That man has caused me too many problems during DnD. It's probably for the best if he doesn't make it too far. He's nothing but a nuisance."

"What about…" Maybe she could ask him about it. "Xi."

Jack stopped walking, deep in thought. "I don't see why that'd be an issue. He looks weird enough."

Perfect. "Yeah, I was just thinking that too. He also doesn't seem trustworthy." She glanced around to the side. "Besides, I think he's already forming a rather large alliance. Isn't it weird that Cameron went home that easily?"

"Yes, it is. Especially after I thought we'd all vote off Catrina." Then something dawned on him. "Are you saying she's part of the alliance too?"

Well, she wasn't thinking that at the time, no. "Yes, she is." But she wasn't going to let such an opportunity escape her. "We have to try and take people like that out, or their alliance will eliminate everyone else on the team, us included." She just left out the part where she was part of that alliance.

Confessional: Arianna

"Hopefully this is all it takes to convince Jack to take out Xi. Then I just have to swing by and collect the rest of those nerds and I'll have a decent alliance on me." She crossed her arms, a smile on her face. "He won't know what the fuck hit him."

As the two were walking, they heard another group approaching them. More specifically Nila, who seemed to be running from someone. It didn't take a genius to see who it was. As the trainee passed the two, they now became the prime target of Chef's gun.

"Run!" Jack called out, making a sprint for it.

The duo began to run with Chef hot in their tale. "She led him to us."

"I knew the other team had dirty tactics…" Jack shook his head. "But this is too low-" He tripped over something and fell to the ground.

"Jack!" Arianna called out, but she didn't stop to save him. Hey, better him than her.

Chef stopped running to catch his breath, and also to shoot Jack in the back, who only let out a monotonous "Ow…"

Confessional: Arianna

"Alright, yeah. I tripped him. But only because had I not, we both would have been caught. I'm just playing smart here. I'm sure he didn't even notice it was me."

Still, even if Jack was used as a sacrifice, Chef was going to stop chasing those two girls. The only problem was that Nila was hard to catch, and he lost sight of Arianna. Which left him alone in the forest now. "Dammit." He crossed his arms as he kept walking. Although, on his way out of the forest, he did notice something quite odd with the ground. A bunch of leaves had fallen to the ground. Almost as if someone… He slowly glanced up, and noticed someone standing at the top of the rather large tree. Not something he would be able to climb in a million years..

Mindy waved from the top of the tree. "Hello Chef!" She blew him a kiss. "Good luck getting up here."

He slowly aimed his gun. "I don't need to get up there."

She looked down at the gun sceptically.

Confessional: Mindy

"At first, I was worried. But then I realised I'm way too high up. If it was a bullet, sure, but how much launch power does that gun have if it's meant to launch spaghetti?"

When he pulled the trigger, the ball of pasta flew through the air, taking out any branches in its way. Almost as if it was dead set on hitting Mindy.

"H-huh-" She didn't have enough time to react, and was hit with the ball of spaghetti. However, it also took out the branch she was standing on, which meant she came soaring to the ground.

Confessional: Mindy

She was now covered in several bruises, scratches, and spaghetti sauce. "I'd like to rescind my initial comment."

Jared and Xi

They had spent so much time talking, that they hadn't even figured out a place to hide yet. "Where do you think we should go?" Jared crossed his arms.

It was a good question. But the answer evaded Xi. "I'm not sure…" He trailed off. "Any major place will surely be checked, and we don't want to hide in too obscure of a location, given Chef might consider that an option. And we definitely can't just roam around the forest, only an idiot would do that." Cut to Arianna having done just that. Then, slowly, an idea formed in his head. "What was the shed like?"

"The… shed…?" Jare began to think about that. "That might just work out. Let's go there."

It was still an area that would be checked out, but it's likely Chef already checked out that area early on.

When the two finally arrived, they saw Chef leaving the area, mumbling under his breath. He wasn't actively chasing anyone, so Arianna and Nila truly did escape.

Once he was out of sight, the two boys moved over towards the shed. They slipped in.

"Still dusty…" Xi shook his head, looking around.

Covering his mouth to cough, Jared shook his head. "It'll have to do." He tipped his hat down. "I don't want to have to go to another ceremony quite yet."

"Hmm…?" The psychologist raised an eyebrow. "Did the last one leave a bad taste in your mouth?"

"Something like that…" He checked some of the equipment out. Nothing that could help them out right now. "It's just not a good feeling, and I'd rather not have to worry about anything."

Confessional: Jared

"It's great that the desired outcome happened last time, but still, I can't help but feel guilty about it all." He tilted his hat down.

Xi picked up a hockey stick. "Do you think we could fight Chef?"

"Absolutely not! Even if we could win, I still wouldn't do it. We'd be kicked off the show for assaulting one of the hosts." Jared shook his head. "I don't plan to make my exit in that regard." These boys hadn't seen what Nila did, then.

The psychologist moved to the back, examining the walls. "There's a window here. It's small, but we might be able to make our escape here."

The cadet moved closer to inspect it. "We better make sure we don't run out too early, because then he could loop around and catch us. Especially with a gun like that, he doesn't need to catch up to us."

Xi shook his head. "How far do you think that gun can fire? We'll be fine." Cut to Mindy.

Jared tipped his hat down. "I would still prefer to not leave things to chance."

Confessional: Xi

"As good as this attitude is, it should be reserved for actual game breaking moments. For a simple challenge, it doesn't matter. The ceremony is the only time that level of precaution is necessary."

Marisa

She had snuck away from Chef, leaving Catrina to die behind. She had dug out most of the information she wanted out of her, so it was time to move onto the next person. She was going to get to the bottom of this team wide conspiracy. Or die trying (by die trying, I mean getting eliminated).

Soon, an announcement would play out for all to hear. "Here's an update of the scores. Both teams are currently tied, with both only having six people left."

Still that many? Chef wasn't as good as she thought he'd be. But she was letting herself get distracted. "Hiding spot."

However, her attention was taken away when she spotted something else. Three people who had been tagged. "R-Robin?" Out of everyone who she thought would get caught, he was the least likely on the list. "How did you get caught?"

"It was a tragic tale…" He shook his head. "Here I was, standing dramatically on the cliffside, awaiting my fate. That's when I heard the footsteps that I knew all too well. Chef had found me. I could either die with honour, or be a coward-"

"Oh! I see!" She clued in that he hadn't been caught. "Sucks to be you."

"Um…" Historia spoke up. "Why are you here? Two of us are on the other team, and we can just get Chef to come get you."

"Do you know where he is right now?"

"Well…" The scholar crossed her arms. "No."

Marisa gave her a cocky smile. "Then I think I'm safe." She took another look at the people here. That meant that both Enima and Historia were the two who were caught from the Bass. Which meant the other six were still out there. She wanted to talk more to Robin, but she felt like now wasn't the best time. "Alright, you have fun!" She knew she would be, had she thought of this herself.

That left the trio alone. "We could just chase her down, making as much noise as possible."

"We could…" Robin nodded his head.

"Isn't she on your team?" Historia raised an eyebrow.

"Doesn't make it any less fun."

Bella and Christopher

They had only been here together for an hour, and both were already sick of it.

"Christopher…" Bella had brought out her own scuba equipment. "How much oxygen do you have left?"

He moved over to get a look at it. "There's about half left." He noted. "It was at about three fourths when I got started."

This was risky, then. "Alright. I'm going to make a risky plan." She took the oxygen tank from her own suit, making sure to not have it leak out. "We should transfer some oxygen from your tank to mine. That way we should have enough to make it back to the surface."

He seemed confused. "But then Chef would be able to find us." He pointed out.

She shook her head. "But staying down here will result in us dying. We should leave while we can." She knelt down next to his oxygen tank. "Help me with this."

Christopher wasn't really sure what he was doing, but he wanted to do his best.

Confessional: Christopher

"Sometimes I feel like the others just know way more than I ever will." He said that, but he still had a smile on his face. "It's always nice to know what the others know. Makes me feel like I can learn so much."

After a bit of working around, they finally managed to transfer the oxygen to the other tank. "It worked!" Bella exclaimed. "Alright, put on the suits, we're getting out of here."

Aww, but he quite liked the hiding spot he found. "Alright." But the thought of doing a perilous escape was nice too.

Confessional: Arianna

"You know, how often does Chef even check this place?" She glanced around, a smile slowly forming on her face. "I bet none. It doesn't really feel like a good place to check. People come here all the time, so."

Jared and Xi

They had been holed up in here for a while. "Hey." Jared finally spoke up. "Why don't we just barricade the door?"

"Hmm?" That caught Xi's interest. "Why would we do that? Would that block one of our methods of escape? Besides, then we'd have to escape, since he'd know we'd be in here."

"Yes, I get that, but." He trailed off. "We don't know where he'd come from right now. He could either choose the door, or the window. If we block off both entrances, the moment he starts tearing them down, we know where he is."

Good point. "Hmm… Then let's do this instead. We block off the door, but let's not clutter it too much. We want the hope of an easy escape, don't we?"

"Yes, precisely. And we'd also need somewhere to go after all of this." The cadet began to think.

Xi crossed his arms. "If only one of us manages to escape, you might be better off taking to the beach. From the last challenge I stashed away the surfboard I got by the dock."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why did you do that?"

"I'm not quite sure. After such a humiliating loss, I was perhaps hoping to gain some experience with it. Just in case I were to end up facing Jeremy again."

"If you did, I'm sure he would just use the same dirty trick on you."

"No matter." The psychologist picked something up from the ground. "I'll just return the favour. "Now enough talking, let's block off the entrances."

It took a bit, but they had a pretty good system down. All it would take is for them to remove one item and they'd be able to bring the entire barricade down. Of course, there wasn't a way to do that from outside. "This feels like a fire hazard." Jared finally realised.

Xi didn't really seem to care. "It's whatever. It'll do."

Confessional: Arianna

"Honestly, at this point I'm just trying to see how many confessionals I can get. I bet the other losers are nowhere near me at this point. This is what, my seventh this episode alone. Keep dreaming, losers." She rolled her eyes.

She was going to say something else, but the door swung open, revealing Chef standing outside. "Girl, find another hobby!"

She wanted to let out a scream, but the spaghetti got to her before she could.

Campfire

It was time to be a dick to Marisa. That was Enima's plan at least. She knew she could do what she wanted, because Robin wouldn't rat himself out unless he had to. And right now, he had no reason.

"Oh Chef!" She called out, as soon as Marisa was in view.

"H-huh?" She turned to look at the three of them. "Get away from me!" Was she going to be caught just like that? Then she eyed Robin, who was making no attempt to stop them. "What's your excuse?"

"Funny."

That was a pretty good excuse there! At any other point in time. "Robin!" She repeated.

"I hear him." Historia stopped walking. "Hey! She's over here!" She called out.

Marisa began to panic. She thought if she just left them to their own devices, she'd be fine. But it seems like the other team really wanted her out. And she didn't exactly have a place to hide yet. The only place that seemed decent was the rocky area behind the wooden stumps. If she could get over there, she could just hide.

"Oh no you don't!" Enima moved over to block her off. "Just get caught by Chef already. We need the win, so."

Time was running out, and unfortunately for Marisa, it might be too late to escape now. She heard the footsteps of Chef right behind her. "W-wait!" She called out. "Don't-"

But he didn't care. Instead, he shot her right in the stomach, sending her flying into the rocky wall.

"Nice one Chef." Robin called out.

He narrowed his eyes at the boy. "When did I get you?"

The tactician seemed hurt. "You don't remember? It was a dark and stormy night…" He began to monologue again.

"Alright! Alright! I get it!" He didn't have time to listen to his tale.

With him gone, that left the group of four alone. "Well that went well." Robin hummed to himself. "I consider that a win in my book."

"I got caught." Marisa narrowed her eyes. "How could that possibly be a win."

With a shrug, he walked away.

Jared and Xi

The two had been bunkered up for a while. "Do you think he's actually coming?" Jared was growing tired of the silence.

Xi shook his head. "Not like I would be able to answer with certainty. He could be here in a few minutes, he could never even find us."

All this waiting was making him antsy. "I know I came up with the plan, but staying here and doing nothing is getting rather boring."

"Make up your mind." He glanced over at the door. "As long as we win this for the team, it's fine."

Or, at least it should have been fine. But the two boys became aware of a noise coming from outside. Footsteps.

"He's here…" Jared got ready to make a break for it. Whichever one would move first… That's when the door began to shake violently. "Go!" The cadet yelled out.

Xi wasted no time in opening the window and jumping out.

"Huh?" The cadet mumbled out. "Wait!"

Before the psychologist could react, he came face to face with Chef. "I-"

That's the only letter he got out of his mouth before he was shot with spaghetti.

Not wanting to have this all be worthless, Jared managed to escape out of the door.

"Hey!" Chef called out, seeing him run away. "Get back here!"

He remembered what Xi had said. The surfboard. While it might not be very effective, if he could get there early enough, he could use the waves to his advantage.

When he finally got to the docks, he slipped right under them. "There!" He told himself, grabbing the surfboard. Chef was still pretty far away, so he had a lot of time left. Running towards the water, he allowed the surfboard to take further out to sea.

"Hey!" A voice called out, but it wasn't Chef. "Stealing my idea?" It was Jeremy.

"You didn't invent the idea." The cadet pointed out.

He shook his head. "No, but it's my brand. I'm the surfer guy." Then he realised something. "What are you running from?" A spaghetti flew past him, telling him all he needed to know. "You brought him here."

"Well-" No, that's exactly what he did. "I would apologise, but your team hasn't been playing fair."

The surfer rolled his eyes as both of them took a wave. "Name me one time we sabotaged you."

Jared narrowed his eyes. "Well, there was the flour-"

"LEG SWEEP!" He tried the same thing he did to Xi, but the cadet was able to avoid it. "Nice try. I don't easily fail, unlike my teammates."

While the two boys were having a confrontation, they forgot the most important part. The actual challenge. Another ball of spaghetti flew past the two of them.

Looking over, Chef now had his own surfboard.

"Where did he…?" Jared mumbled out. He looked over at Jeremy, but he was already long gone. "Dammit…" At this rate, Chef would only get him. "Don't leave me behind!"

Christopher and Bella

The duo had made good leeway towards their escape. In fact, inch by inch, they began to see sunlight.

Concerned, Bella checked her oxygen level. They were both almost out. She wanted to panic, but she also knew that would waste more oxygen, so she calmed her breath down. Almost there…" She reassured herself.

Soon, the two of them resurfaced.

"We did it!" Christopher called out, triumph.

It was very short lived.

Something would run right into his head. That something turned out to be Jeremy, flying right off his surfboard.

"Who won now?" Jared called out as he passed them.

"You-" The surfer seemed ticked off, but it was very short lived, as his face was splattered with sauce.

"H-huh?" Christopher looked around in a panic. Was Chef here- Sauce to the face.

"What's going on?" Bella still didn't fully understand the challenge, but it didn't take a genius to connect the pieces. Unfortunately, that didn't matter when there was nowhere to hide. She was also shot in the face.

Soon, the intercom roared to life. "And that's three out in a row from the Killer Bass! That leaves the teams tied up with three members each!"

Confessional: Jared

He tipped his hat down. "It felt kind of cheap, but the other team deserves it after so many of their schemes went unpunished."

Nila

Nila let out a sigh upon hearing the announcement. Only her and two other people. "This wasn't turning out how she wanted it to. "I do not believe I have caught anyone yet." Still, surviving could be the better option now. No need to hunt down individual people. But where would three people be hiding? They had to have all been gotten in a row…

That's when she noticed that Jared was running away from the beach. He had a bit of water on him, and he seemed in a hurry. "The beach…" She mumbled out to herself. That's where she would avoid.

Jared

He wasn't sure who was still left in his team, but he felt that Chef still had to be hot on his trail.

He would keep running until he was certain that he wasn't being followed anymore. Into the forest he went. If he tried to get as far from the beach as possible, it would take forever for Chef to find him.

However, he ran into someone on his way to the other side of the island. Or, he would have, had he not stopped himself in time. "Talia?"

"Jared?" They both glanced over at each other, noting that they still hadn't been caught. "You're doing well for yourself."

"As are you." He was having a hard time containing his happiness. "How have you managed to avoid him?"

She placed a hand on her hip, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think he's even seen me yet, so that might help."

Yeah, that would do it. "Should we hide together?"

She tilted her head to the side. "I guess we can…" She didn't seem too happy about it, though.

He frowned slightly. "Is something wrong?"

Talia shook her head. "Nothing's wrong."

Confessional: Talia

She had her arms crossed. "I know what he did last time, and it rubs me the wrong way. But there's no natural way I can bring it up to him. Besides, there's the entire Xi thing with him."

The two kept running further into the forest. "So he was just at the beach?" Talia didn't try to start the desired conversation with him.

"Yes. He managed to eliminate Bella, Chritsopher, and Jeremy in one fell swoop. I was able to avoid getting caught briefly."

Thinking for a moment, she glanced to the side. "It's us two, and who else?"

"Well, I know Xi got caught, so it can't be him."

"And I saw Eleanor get shot." Great! They narrowed it down to only five people.

Jared shook his head. "I don't think it really matters, does it?"

He had a good point. "Yeah, as long as they can win if we fail." They would just have to pray that they weren't the only two left in a bit.

David

For the entire challenge, he had been standing on the edge of the large cliff. The wind blew through his hair as he looked out to the horizon. Nobody had gone this way, including Chef. He didn't really know the reason why. Maybe it was because it was so far out of the way that he never considered it. Or maybe he was saving him for last…

Still… It was time now.

"I've been waiting for you." The shady guy called out, not turning around to face Chef.

"You ain't got nowhere to run." Chef called out. Despite sounding confident, he seemed to be out of breath. Turns out chasing after someone across the entire island and losing them could be exhausting.

David turned to look at him. "Nowhere to run?" He shook his head. "Far from it." He took a step back, balancing himself dangerously over the edge. "I have one method of escape."

"Boy, you failed that jump last time!" Chef warned him.

"I- I still landed." Whatever, he didn't need to explain himself. "Just know there's no way you can beat me-"

Chef took the shot without hesitation.

Of course, David had been expecting that. He leaned his body back, allowing himself to fall off the edge. The spaghetti ball barely missed hitting him right in the head. "Good luck!" He gave a two finger wave as he went off the edge.

Slowly by slowly, he plummeted toward the water below. This time, however, he seemed way more on track to land in the designated area.

With a rather large splash, he found himself within the safe zone. Something he hadn't done his first time. "Yes! Beat that Chef!" He glanced at the water he was in, seeing something reflected in the water. "Huh?" He took a glance up, and the camera cut perfectly right before Chef would land on him.

Confessional: David

He was currently covered in spaghetti. "I never considered the possibility that he would jump in himself. I thought he was a pussy."

Jared and Talia

The duo finally stopped running when they reached the other side of the island. "There's nowhere to hide around here." Talia pointed out.

Jared shook his head. "That won't matter if we keep running from him." He said that, but he was visibly exhausted.

"We… just ran across the entire island." She pointed out. "No way we'd be able to outrun him."

He let out a chuckle. "Come on, we still have a lot of energ-" He got blasted from the side, falling to the ground.

Talia froze up slightly, slowly looking over at Chef, who was dripping water with every step he took. "Found ya." He aimed the gun at her.

She tried to get out of the way in time, but was too slow.

She was hit right in the side, knocking her to the ground.

"How did he even get here so quickly?" Jared called out before running over to Talia. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah…" She slowly got onto her feet. That meant that whoever was last on the team had to pull through if they wanted a victory.

Robin, Enima, Historia

The trio had been walking, when suddenly an announcement played out. "We are down to the wire! Only three campers are left! One from the Screaming Gophers, and two from the Killer Bass! It's still anyone's game!"

The gears in Enima's head were slowly turning. "So, you're the last one of your team."

"What!?" Seems Historia hadn't picked up on what was happening. "Then why hadn't you said anything? Chef had seen us!"

The mysterious girl rolled her eyes. "Because I'm doing the same thing. Duh."

Wait, they had shared strategies. "Why the hell would you share ideas with each other."

Robin crossed his arms. "It's not like I had much of a choice. If I didn't let her join me, she would rat me out."

"Same with him over here. I can't reveal what he did without getting called out myself."

Historia narrowed her eyes. "And why would you pull off that trick? Better yet, why even hang around him."

"Oh! That's easy." Enima smiled. She moved quicker than Robin could react. In a moment, she had brought his hands behind his back. "Now I can set him up for failure."

The tactician didn't seem too bothered. "So this was your grand strategy, huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's not like Nila was going to get caught. The plan was always to take you out as soon as you were the last member of the team."

Robin shook his head. "And you think this plan will work? Chef isn't even here."

That was true, but she wasn't going to let it dissuade the plan. "I can wait all day. Either way, I'm winning this for my team."

Historia stared at her for a few seconds.

Confessional: Historia

"I'm supposed to be the smart one, and yet, Enima came up with a way better idea than I did…" She trailed off. "I want to help, but there's nothing I can really do…"

"Keep walking." Enima ordered him as the trio kept walking.

Robin didn't really seem to mind. "So, what if he shoots you first?"

She rolled her eyes. "Not like you'd get far." She turned her attention to Historia. "Grab his arm."

"H-huh!?" She was confused a bit, but she did as she was told. Grabbing onto his arm, both girls guided him further towards the forest.

Robin shook his head. "Ladies, ladies. There's enough of me to go around for everyone."

Quickly, the scholar let go of his arm. "Nope. Not doing that anymore."

"Hey Chef!" Enima called out into the forest as loud as she could. "We have someone here!"

It took a lot more walking and shouting for Chef to finally appear. When he stopped, he raised an eyebrow. "Didn't I already get ya?"

Enima shrugged. "Nope. You didn't catch him. He covered himself in spaghetti."

"He what?" He raised his gun.

Robin shook his head. "No, she's lying." He nudged his head over towards her. "She's the one who did it."

Tempting, but Chef had a solution. "What if I just shoot both of you?"

"Hmm…" The tactician had to think of something. "If you get me now, you won't be able to get Nila." He had no way of knowing if she was still in, but the way Enima spoke of her, he was pretty confident.

He raised an eyebrow at that. He was almost convinced to let him go. But no, he couldn't be biased. "Sorry kid." He put his finger on the trigger.

That was a shame… Letting out a sigh, Robin tilted his head back to look at Enima. "Sorry about this."

"Huh?" Before she could react any further, she felt her feet lifted off the ground.

As Chef pulled the trigger of the gun, he managed to shoot Enima.

A smirk slowly appeared on Robin's face. "Thanks for the shield." His eyes moved over to Historia, who was frozen in shock.

He needed another shield. One that would probably be easier to move around. He rushed over to her and got ready to use her as a meat shield.

"H-hey!" She got blasted again.

He kept a hold of her, using her for as long as he needed to. He knew that the gun would run out of ammo eventually. That's why there was so much spaghetti, and Historia even made mention of him having to reload.

Confessional: Robin

"People's biggest weakness is that they don't stop talking about such mundane things. And yet twice they've given me an advantage by talking. All I need to do is go find Nila now."

Confessional: Enima

She had a rather large smirk on her face. "Oh, he's good." Her eyes trailed off to the side. "I might need to see what's up with him instead."

He kept running through the forest as an announcement played to reveal that there was only one person left on both teams. The island was big, and he had Chef chasing after him the entire time. Weaving through the trees, he was able to avoid all the shots.

"Get back here!" Chef weighed his gun, realising he was running low on ammo now.

Robin shook his head. "No, I don't think I will." He reached a slope, and allowed himself to slide down it. And at the bottom, was just the person he was looking for. Nila.

Once he reached the bottom, he made a dash towards her.

"Huh?" His movement caught her attention. And his intent was clear. "You are not going to stop me!" Someone who had been eliminated was trying to get her caught. That was her initial thought… until she saw a shot barely miss him and splatter on the ground. "Huh… Have you not been shot…?" Then she clued in just what was happening. If they were the last two people, there was no point in her running anymore. She'd make it so she was the last one standing.

Robin had mostly been paying attention to where Chef's next shot would end up, that he didn't even see that Nila was running towards him. "Hmm…" That made things easier. But this was still Nila they were talking about. She wouldn't be an easy opponent. Luckily, she would be a fair opponent, which meant he could take advantage of her all he wanted. Avoiding another shot, the distance between the two campers had closed. "Seems like you're the last person on your team-" He was pushed to the ground right away.

"I am not sure how much I agree with your tactic." Nila was pinning him down. "Covering yourself in spaghetti seems kind of cheap for a method, especially since avoiding Chef is not that hard."

Damn, all these girls fighting for him. Except the 'for' was silent. "Hm, and yet I was able to get this far." He placed his foot right against her stomach. "But if you want to fight like this, I'm fine with it too." Before she could react, he pushed against her, knocking her off him. He managed to avoid another spaghetti that almost hit him in the head.

Nila was quick on her feet, however. She almost completely ignored Chef, seeing him as a nonfactor. "I do not wish to fight, but it seems only fair if you plan to play the way you did." She avoided a shot.

"The way I did?" Robin scoffed. "Have you seen your team lately? They're all about playing unfairly. And here I thought you wouldn't be like them." He stepped to the side to avoid a shot.

She seemed a bit hurt at the comment. "Yes, my team does not play fair. I try my best to do that too, but only if it is against an opponent that will play the same way I would." Seeing that Chef was walking closer, she moved over and grabbed onto Robin. "I am sorry, but our team has won this time." She turned the two of them so his back was now facing Chef.

He raised his gun, looking at the contents inside. One last shot from this. It had to end now or else it would go on for another hour.

Robin didn't seem too bothered, once again, from being grabbed. He glanced behind himself. He just had to wait for the trigger to be pulled- NOW! As soon as he saw it being pulled, he leaned his entire body weight back by letting his body fall.

Nila had been ready to stop him from running, but she wasn't expecting to just let himself fall. And since she had been holding on so tight, she went with him.

Like he did earlier, he pulled the same trick. He used his feet to push her off him, giving her just enough height to line up with Chef's shot.

Since she wasn't on solid ground, she couldn't manoeuvre her body to avoid the shot, and she was hit in the back.

"And that's a wrap!" Chris called out as soon the shot connected with Nila. "The winners of this challenge are… the Screaming Gophers!"

Nila laid on the ground, bewildered.

Confessional: Nila

"I… I… Lost a fight?" She held her own arm. "I've… never…" She didn't even want to finish the sentence.

Cafeteria (Screaming Gophers)

"Hmm…" Jack has his arms crossed. He had since taken a shower. "I didn't think you had it in you to win the challenge for us."

Robin, who had still not taken a shower, shook his head. "What, you thought my cocky attitude was an act? I know what I'm doing."

"But to cover yourself in spaghetti first!" Eleanor seemed amazed.

Marisa shook her head. "We still won, but you didn't have to let the others rat me out like that."

"It was to accelerate the process." The tactician shook his head. "I couldn't make a move until either Enima or I were the last two campers. It was just easier to take you out."

That didn't make any sense, but she was already bored of the issue.

Catrina let out a sigh. "I'm just happy we won the challenge."

Confessional: Catrina

"Hey, I'm as happy as the next person to vote Xi out, but Marisa wants to do this with next to no expense to herself. If Xi catches on that I want him out, then it's likely I'll be the one going home." She crossed her arms, looking the other way. "But we'll inevitably lose another challenge in the future, so I should be ready for when that happens."

On the other side of the cafeteria, the Killer Bass were once again sombre. Again, they'd need to vote someone off.

"This is getting ridiculous." David commented, shaking his head.

Jeremy shrugged. "That just means we'll win the next challenge."

"It does?" Christopher mumbled out.

Mindy let out a sad sigh. "I'm not even sure who we should blame for this loss."

"Blame me." Nila finally spoke up. "I am the reason we lost."

"What?" Historia raised an eyebrow. "You were the last one of us left." She glanced away. "Blame me. I was the first one found."

Enima slid over next to her, placing a hand on the opposite shoulder. "Don't listen to her. She helped me take down Marisa earlier."

"Get off me…" The scholar glared at her.

Taking the hint, the mysterious girl slid back over towards her side of the table.

Jeremy let out a little laugh. "Honestly, I think it's pretty obvious who should be voted for. And if you can't figure it out…" He trailed off. "Then honestly, you should have been paying attention more."

"But we were all separated across the island. None of us even saw each other." Mindy pointed out.

Bella listened in to the entire conversation before something dawned on her.

Confessional: Bella

"He doesn't mean…" She trailed off. She had a bad feeling about this.

"Oh!" David had forgotten to bring something up. "I see that Bella was found, finally! Good to have you back." His tone of voice felt different than his usual one.

She spent a few seconds looking at him. "Is… everything alright?"

"It was just wild how you went missing, and Chef somehow managed to find you. Crazy!"

"Enough." Nila shook her head. "We should just be happy that she is back. No need to become aggressive."

The shady guy looked at her for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Whatever, I'm going to head off now." He stopped at the door. "Oh! Christopher! There's something fun I wanted to talk to you about!"

"Oh?" That caught his interest. "I'll be right there!" He quickly stood up, only to be stopped by Bella.

"Don't trust him." She warned him.

Well, that was a crazy thought. It was David! The man had been trying so hard to let the team win. "It's fine! I'll be right back."

Enima took notice of that.

Confessional: Enima

"An alliance with those two? When there's so little of us left? Yeah, I don't like it one bit. One of them has to go."

Outside

David was sitting down on the stairs. "Heya buddy!" He greeted him. "It's about the vote." Straight to the point.

"Don't worry!" The boy said with a smile. "I won't vote for you!"

That issue hadn't even entered his head yet. Shaking his head with a smile, he tilted his head to the side. "No, I wasn't worried about that. I wanted you to vote someone off with me."

"You want me to…?" He paused for a moment. "Yeah, who?"

"Enima." He crossed his arms. "Don't trust her one bit."

She did have a weird aura to her. Besides, she stole some things for the talent show. "Alright!" It seems he didn't need any other convincing.

"O-oh! Well! Alright!" The man had an entire speech ready. "Good for you! Thank you!"

Well, since that was over, time for Christopher to go back to eating.

Once inside, he was greeted by Bella. "Whatever he told you, please don't listen to him." She knew it was about the vote, but she didn't know who the vote was for. "We should vote him off."

Vote… him off?

Confessional: Christopher

"But I can't vote for someone when I just promised them that I wouldn't! That would be wrong. But I can't say no to Bella…" Lying it was!

"You got it!" He gave her a thumbs up.

She blinked a few times. That was surprisingly easy. "O-oh! Well! Alright!" The girl had an entire speech ready. "Good for you! Thank you!"

Well, since that was over, time for Christop- hey wait a minute, this is just a repeat-

Elimination Ceremony

The team of eight slowly gathered up here for the fourth time… It was really becoming a trend at this point.

Chris watched them all gather around. Holding a plate… with zero marshmallows. Besides him, Chef held a smaller version of the gun from before.

"Campers…" He finally spoke up after they had all sat down. "You all tried your best in today's challenge. But it wasn't enough in the end. The Screaming Gophers have beaten you again."

There was a large silence before Nila stood up. "It is all my fault. So if I do not receive a marshma-"

"Sit down!" The host ordered her. "Do not interrupt my speech." The man had an entire speech ready. "Ahem! This time, instead of me handing out the marshmallows, I thought it would be for the best to have Chef shoot them out of a cannon." He pointed to his left.

"I shot you all once today, and I'll shoot you all once again." There was a pause. "Except one of you." There was another pause. "And I already shot Historia several times."

She shivered slightly. "I was used as a meat shield."

"When I call out your name." The host continued. "Get ready to catch your marshmallow. The first one of the night goes to… Nila."

She had no problem catching it, but she seemed disappointed.

"Next up… Mindy."

She also didn't have a problem catching it.

Chris took a deep sigh. "Now, this is where it gets weird. Because from this point on… everyone received a vote."

Everyone glanced around at each other.

"H-how did I catch a vote?" Bella mumbled out.

David sent a glance her way. "Weird, right?"

"Which means I have to do my speech much sooner than usual." Normally he'd only do it with four people. Six was a bit excessive. "Bella. You went missing after the last challenge. Some would think that you would have won them the hide and seek challenge. And yet somehow you got caught anyway. Christopher, you might have caused the most damage to your team by directly being responsible for two of your teammates being caught. David, it seems people might still be on you after the entire cooking situation."

"Eh." The Jack response.

Continuing on, Chris turned to look at Enima. "Now, you did pretty well for your team, but maybe you've done something that caught the attention of someone."

"I've been trying to catch someone's attention." She rolled her eyes. "But not by being voted for."

"Historia." Chris turned to look at her. "You were the first person caught, and have contributed the least overall to your team. Maybe that's one of the reasons you have a vote."

"Doesn't mean I didn't try…" She mumbled out.

"And lastly… Jeremy…" He couldn't think of anything bad. "Here, have a marshmallow." He was shot in the face.

"And the next one goes to… Historia."

"Huh?" She was surprised she got called so early. She was also surprised she got shot at with a marshmallow. "H-hey!"

That left only four campers without a marshmallow. Bella, Christopher, David, and Enima. "The one goes to… Bella."

She wasn't quick enough to catch the marshmallow like some of the others, but she didn't bother picking it up. Not when the bottom three was looking like this. Had the votes gone the way she wanted them to?

"The next one goes to… David!"

He managed to catch that marshmallow.

No! But wait… mathematically that didn't make sense… Bella tried to run all the thoughts in her head. But she came back with the conclusion that Christopher didn't vote for David at all.

"Christopher… Enima… There is only one marshmallow left here tonight. One of you is going home. Never to return to Total Drama Island…" He mimicked himself picking up a marshmallow off the plate. "The final marshmallow of the night GOES to…" He trailed off for dramatic effect.

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"Enima." The last one was shot at her.

"W-what!?" Bella quickly stood up, a bit shocked. "How did… How did Christopher get the most votes?"

"Weird. Guess we'll never know…" Jeremy trailed off.

She sent a glare his way. She figured he might have had something to do with it. But… she also didn't want a fight, so she sat back down.

Christopher stood up. He didn't really seem to mind. "It's alright!" He was being rather optimistic. "I don't want to go home, but I had a lot of fun while I was here." He turned to look at Bella. "It was nice being friends with you!"

"Y-yeah! Likewise." Now she was just embarrassed. She made such a big deal out of it when Christopher simply brushed it off. Maybe she cared more than she thought.

"Chris! Show me to the boat!" He called out happily.

The host motioned Chef to go do the hard work for him.

Rolling his eyes, he guided Christopher over to the boat. "You know, it's not as great as the boat that came here."

"It's called the boat of losers. It ain't going to be great." Chef stepped onto the boat, followed by the boy.

Standing by the railing, Christopher watched the night sky reflected in the water. "You know, I hope I come back here." He turned back towards the dock, where Bella was standing now. "Oh! Bella!" He called out with a bright smile on his face. "You win the season for me, alright!"

"O-OK!" She wanted to say some other things, but she didn't quite know what. "I'm… I'll win for you! Alright!" She was now fueled by new determination as she watched the boat silently drift away into the darkness.

Before she could leave, Chris stepped onto the dock, ignoring her. "And that concludes this episode of Total Drama! The Killer Bass were victims of another loss. Is the future looking bright for them? Will Bella be able to avenge Christopher?"

"I'm right here…" She pointed out.

"Will Bella even be able to survive another episode?"

"Chris… don't ignore me…"

"Hell, does anyone even like Bella on her team?" The host had a giant smile on his face.

"Chris!" The nature lover called out.

"Find out next time on Total! Drama! ISLAND!" And then the camera turned off.

Votes

Jeremy: 1

Historia: 1

Bella: 1

David: 1

Enima: 1

Christopher: 3

Voting Confessionals

Bella

"I told Christopher to vote for David, and he agreed to it… So hopefully that means he goes home this time. I'm not sure where most of the team will vote, but if even one other person votes for David, that's almost the majority."

Christopher

"I know she told me to vote for David… but…" He shook his head. "I can't do that. I promised him I wouldn't. Besides, he's an alliance member!" He trailed off. "I… think. Either way, I voted with him last time, so I'll do it again! My vote is for Enima!"

David

"Alright, I know I told Christopher to vote off Enima, and that was my intention originally… Something caught my eye. I didn't enter the cafeteria, but Bella was standing rather close to the door. I heard her talking about voting me out. Now, I already know that she wants me out, but hearing her try to persuade Christopher to vote me out." He let out a laugh. "I convinced Jeremy to vote for her. If things work out well, maybe she'll be the one going home instead."

Jeremy

Despite not being next alphabetically, here he was. "Haha, someone told me to vote for someone, but I forgot who on both fronts. So instead I'll just go with my original choice. Christopher should go home because he caused me to lose. I would have been able to avoid Chef had he not resurfaced right in front of me."

Enima

Back to your regularly scheduled alphabet. "Hmm… I know it was risky talking to Historia about who to vote, since she seems just as likely to vote me out. But she did offer one name. Christopher. If I want this alliance to work, I'll have to listen to her for now. Besides… He seems to have found himself with two potential allies. Might as well shoot him down now when there's still a chance."

Historia

"Well, if we were going based solely on who hasn't been a help to the team, I feel like I'd catch the most votes. But this isn't what matters right now. I'm voting for the same person as last time. The one person I truly don't think we need on the team. Christopher doesn't seem all there, so…" She trailed off.

Mindy

"I pretty much had no stakes this entire episode…" She let out a sad sigh. "Chef found me early, and I didn't even get to strategise with anyone." She tilted her head to the side. "Honestly, my vote is a throwaway one at this point. Not like I've ever really put much thought into my votes. I'll vote for Jeremy."

Nila

She seemed torn. "I do not wish to vote for anyone… But if I must vote for someone… I choose Historia. She seems like the biggest hindrance right now. She has not brought anything to the team, and I fear keeping her around will only cause us more losses…"

Campers Remaining: 16

Screaming Gophers:

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Arianna Rodriguez: The Popular Girl

Catrina Rwuicks: The Outgoing DJ

Eleanor Eden: The Sweet Gardener

Jack Bunda: The Cynical Critic

Jared Caertas: The Law Abiding Cadet

Marisa Campbell: The Excited Journalist

Robin Fuego: The Snarky Tactician

Talia Wayward: The Rude Waitress

Xi Loung: The Manipulative Psychologist

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Killer Bass

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Bella Fiore: The Quiet Nature Lover

David Talon: The Shady Guy

Enima Palapeli: The Mysterious Painter

Historia Lenz: The Unbearable Scholar

Jeremy Cloud: The Fearless Surfer

Mindy Misuto: The Mischievous Artist

Nila Darabond: The Soft Military Trainee

Eliminated: Jenna, Matthew, Ashton, Josef, Cameron, Christopher