Chapter 12: The very brick mistake

As Axel looked down at Wayne moving towards the ground, she glanced over at the Orangutans' tower. She could still see Damien, Bowie, Caleb and Raj. She smiled to herself as she closed her eyes.

"Alright you two, we're in the lead. You guys better not mess this up," she said to Ripper and Chase who were standing behind her.

Chase and Ripper briefly looked at each other and chortled.

"Us? Mess things up? Relax, we'll be fine!" Chase sniggered.

"Yeah… quit nagging! how can we possibly mess this up? This is easy!" Ripper nodded. Why was Axel being so paranoid?

Axel continued to speak without facing them. "If we blow this lead, I'm personally bringing both of you back up just to kick you back down again got it?" she whispered dangerously.

"Seriously, remember what happened last time you kicked me? You got your butt eliminated," Ripper snorted. Did Axel seriously think she was in a position to make threats when she had gotten out second last season? He was not afraid of her empty threats!

Axel rolled her eyes and smiled to herself.

"But it was so worth it… DON'T MAKE ME DO IT AGAIN!" she said so suddenly that the boys flinched.

"CAN YOU JUST GO?" Ripper and Chase said together annoyed.

"I'm waiting for Wayne to hop out of his basket you idiots…. " – she looked down – "Oh wait! He's almost out! Take the bricks out!" she ordered, keeping a watchful eye on Wayne who was about to hit the ground.

Ripper and Chase grunted as they took out bricks one by one. Since Wayne weighed 194 pounds, they needed to take out 18 bricks. This sounded a lot easier than it actually was. By this point the sun was at its peak, shining directly over their sweaty heads. Coupled with the fact that they had been hard at work removing bricks all day, they were running out of energy and found themselves frequently gasping for breath as they took the bricks out slowly…

Axel clapped her hands impatiently. "Seriously? You guys called yourselves the strongest two? Hurry!"

"We're literally gassed. Do you know how many bricks we had to move today?" Chase said outraged. He cracked his back and groaned in relief. That had been a tight spot.

"Our hands are literally being burned raw from these stupid bricks! OW!" Ripper yelped as he dropped a brick onto the tower floor.

Axel rolled her eyes. As far as she was concerned, these two were just making excuses. What was it these days with teenage boys complaining about hard work? This type of lazy behaviour would not be tolerated in her tribe.

"MOVE!" she growled as she quickly scooped out 10 bricks, essentially carrying 100 pounds in her bare hands.

Axel confessional: Where I'm from, that's light weight *flexes*

"YOOO MUSCLE MOMMY! CHILLLLL!" Chase laughed nervously as Axel dumped 10 bricks onto the floor loudly with a THUD! Axel gave a little laugh at her new nickname which she actually liked. It had a little ring to it.

"Whoa! You're actually kind of strong!" Ripper conceded. The alpha male giving praise to someone about their strength was no small accomplishment!

"Why do you sound so surprised? I'm literally stronger than you," Axel smirked as she turned away.

"OK now, let's not get carried away," Ripper frowned.

"Alright boys," Axel said putting her hands on her hips. "Since I took out all of those bricks, you guys can set me up! I weigh 138 pounds of pure muscle." She stomped her boots on the ground to wake the boys up as they were starting to look drowsy to her.

Chase chuckled nervously.

"No problem! Just sit back!" He placed two bricks into the ascending basket.

After a few minutes, Axel's basket was ready to go down with her in it.

"Alright, let's go!" Axel roared as she leaped into her basket. It wobbled slightly but eventually stabilized.

From her peripheral vision, she could see Damien was about to go down as well. The race was now two Panthers vs three Orangutans. Ripper and Chase waved Axel off as she began to descend.

Bowie and Raj looked down apprehensively as Damien disappeared.

"Hey Raj, I appreciate you for speaking up back there but you really didn't have to. I mean…was the swollen lip really worth it?" Bowie put his hand over Raj's mouth and began rubbing it gently.

Raj confessional: *laughs* I can't believe he asked me that!

Raj nodded fervently. "Totally. I'm serious Bowie, I won't allow Caleb to go after you all season… Damn, this is exactly what Julia wanted to happen, eh?" At these words, Raj glared at Caleb who faltered.

This wasn't even fair! Caleb felt MK was sabotaging him. This was a horrible plan. It wasn't even because of Julia that they were arguing, rather it was someone on their own team pulling the strings.

Caleb confessional: Maybe MK's just trying to save her own skin by making me super unpopular on the team… I don't know… AGH! I should've seen this coming. *groans*

"Ugh yeah. She obviously knew the three of us wouldn't mesh too well…" Bowie glanced nervously at Caleb who hung his head.

Bowie confessional: *raises his finger* If Julia thinks she can play with me all season she is horribly mistaken. Seems unlikely but if I can eventually get Caleb to join an alliance with me she is SO screwed! This time I'm not even going to pretend to team up with her. I'm eliminating her first chance I get!

Chase put his hand over his forehead as he watched Axel come close to the ground. He whistled casually and picked up a brick.

"Hey Ripper. How funny would it be if I brought this down with me? WOOPS! I just gained 10 pounds ahahaha!" he laughed obnoxiously as he stuffed the brick into his back pocket.

"Take two extra bricks so you'll go down twice as fast! Come on, you're a daredevil. This should be a piece of cake!" Ripper guffawed.

Chase fist-bumped Ripper.

"Gotcha buddy," he said, nodding his head.

Chase confessional: Axel doesn't need to worry about us blowing any leads. We're about to go down super-fast. Thanks to my genius idea. *points to himself proudly and gives a goofy grin*

After setting his basket up, Chase was ready to go.

"Let's do this!" He pocketed two bricks into his ass-cheek pockets and high-fived Ripper.

"Go for it buddy!" Ripper clapped his back enthusiastically.

Chase laughed as he hopped in. It was all funs and laughs… Or was it?

As soon as he entered the basket, he knew something was wrong. He was falling much too fast. Chase had thought he could get away with breaking the 10 pound rule by a few pounds… after all, he had only brought two extra bricks with him! But as his basket fell rapidly to the ground, he began to panic. He was not laughing anymore. He had lost control.

"AHHHHHH! NO, NO, NO! STOP, STOP! RIPPER WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HELP ME MAN!" Chase yelled frightened as if Ripper could do anything to help him from up there.

"WHAT THE – DUDE?!" Ripper cried out as he saw Chase disappearing rapidly.

Chase gave a high-pitched scream as he saw himself crashing towards the ground… was this how the prankster would go out? A Total Drama challenge? He panicked and tossed both bricks out from his pocket, already regretting breaking the 10-pound rule. He had to get rid of them fast.

Chase closed his eyes shut, expecting to go down smoothly now that he no longer had the extra weight on him. But suddenly…everything went still.

Chase opened his eyes. He was almost at the ground! But there was one giant problem – he was not moving. Apparently, one brick had managed to hit a bush while the other had somehow ended up in the other basket. The result was Chase being stuck in limbo now that both baskets weighed the same amount.

Though he did not know how he was going to get out of this situation, he was just grateful to be alive. Chase took deep breaths as he calmed himself down, leaning against his basket.

But then –

"HAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHA!" Emma roared hysterically, rolling around on the ground while she kicked her legs in all directions.

Chase blinked and looked down.

"HEY! What's so funny? I almost died!" he said indignantly.

"OH! SO NOW IS IT WRONG IF I LAUGH AT YOUR PREMATURE DEATH? HOW DOES IT FEEL? THIS IS SO FUNNY! HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAAAAAAAA!" Emma thrashed around on the ground, laughing insanely. Damien stared at her concerned.

"Oh dear… she's lost it…" Bowie mumbled, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Uh… they're not really the same thing because I'm important and you're normal," Chase said casually as if he were explaining to her that 2 + 2 = 4. "Higher priorities babe, not all of us are equal!"

"UGH!" Emma stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. She absolutely loathed when he did that!

"It seems the Panthers have run into a little bit of trouble…" Chris chortled as he watched Chase remaining still in his basket.

"UGH! Great, He's STUCK! How are we supposed to get our baskets up to Ripper?" Julia shrieked.

"We need to get those baskets moving! HURRY!" Wayne yelled, looking up fiercely.

"Chase, can you reach for the other basket and take out a brick?" Julia looked up, sweating. They were wasting too much time. The other team was surely going to catch up and overtake them…

"I can't… It's too far… AGH!" Chase groaned as he stretched his hands to try and reach for the other basket. But no use. Each time he tried, he was scared he would flip his own basket over and fall out.

Ripper clearly had a different solution than Julia. As Chase continued to reach for the basket, he suddenly saw a rectangular shadow moving downwards. It was getting larger and larger.

"WHOA!" Chase yelped as a brick narrowly missed him and instead hit the ground with a loud BANG!

Ripper had just chucked a brick from the top of the tower, hoping to land in Chase's basket so that he could weigh 10 pounds more and start moving again. He had missed and instead almost hit Nichelle who clutched her chest absolutely traumatized. Nichelle took deep breaths as she stared horrified upwards.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU ALMOST KILLED NICHELLE!" Axel roared, shaking her fist furiously at Ripper.

"WHAT? DON'T YELL AT ME. I'M TRYING TO FIX THE SITUATION!" Ripper retaliated.

Ripper confessional: *red-faced* Why's everyone getting mad at ME!? I was the only one who tried to make Chase's basket 10 pounds heavier!

Julia pulled her hair agitated.

"That's IT! RIPPER! STOP CHUCKING BRICKS LIKE A MORON! Chase, REACH! Try to give yourself some momentum and use your feet to wrap around the handles of the other basket! You NEED to take one brick out of there or else you're never going to move!" she yelled.

Chase took a deep breath. Julia was right. If they lost… well… he would definitely be the first boot. And that would be much too humiliating. Chase would probably disappear for months until the Internet forgot about it…

Stretching with all his might, Chase extended his leg desperately trying to wrap it around the rope of the other basket. If he could just reach it and pull it closer towards him, he could shake a brick out… would he be able to do it?...