Chapter 6: Priceless Information

8:58 pm

"Damn… stupid Mclean… 'I wanted red paint', that's not what you said last night you liar!" Sally, the now fired intern muttered to herself as she walked the Dock of Shame. "Oh well, guess that's what I get for agreeing to work at a place like this." And to think she was getting paid minimum wage! She sighed to herself resignedly as she slung her bag over her shoulder and was about to board on to the awaiting boat that would take her home when –

"Wait! Sally! Wait up!" a voice pierced through the night sky.

Sally frowned. That voice did not sound familiar to her. It did not belong to a co-worker nor did it belong to any of the hosts. She turned. Next thing she knew, she saw a small girl with a beanie and a large red coat rushing towards her, waving her hands frantically. Though Sally did not recognize the voice, she knew the face and name when she had prepared the icons for today's challenge.

MK panted noisily as she finally reached Sally. "Hey… Sally right?" MK wheezed, clutching her chest and gasping for air.

"Yup. What do you want?" Sally said coldly. She was rather snappish considering she had just gotten fired.

"I saw what happened earlier today, during the challenge…. I'm sorry…" MK began, shifty-eyed. Inside her heart was thumping because of the great risk she was taking right now.

"Well don't be. Kind of hated working here to be honest…" Sally shrugged nonchalantly.

MK looked around before continuing her conversation. "Listen…. do you think you can help me?" MK whispered urgently as she leaned in closer to Sally.

Sally took a nervous step backwards.

"Uhhh… I guess?" she said suspiciously. Though she did not know who this person was, they obviously needed something from her considering they were looking so desperate.

"Since you worked here as an intern, you must have had to do the challenges this season… right? Testing for safety and stuff?" MK continued to whisper so fast Sally had to bring an ear closer to her.

"Yes…"

"All challenges are final? He's not changing anything up?..."

"Correct…"

MK suddenly whipped out her phone "What are they? Tell me all of them," she said bluntly. MK's fingers were ready to type away as fast as possible.

Sally raised an eyebrow. "Why would I tell you that?" she laughed nervously. It had been in their work contracts to not disclose any of this information to the contestants. And even though she had just been fired, she still felt uneasy at this… cheating.

MK shrugged. "Eh… it can be your little act of rebellion against Chris. Plus I'll split the prize money with you. 60-40 for me of course…" she smirked as she saw Sally's face light up at these words. Well, when she put it like that….

"50-50 and you have a deal," Sally winked.

"Fine," MK rolled her eyes. 1.5 million was still a lot of money to work with and she was desperate to get these challenges fast.

"Just a moment!" Sally called over her shoulder to Chef Hatchet who was looking at them suspiciously from the helm of the boat.

Sally quickly pulled out a sheet of paper and began writing wildly. MK blinked. What is she doing? MK thought incredulously. "Umm… I have a phone right here…Just tell me out loud and I'll put it in my notes – "

"Can't," Sally shook her head. "Your notes are being monitored. As well as your private emails, search history, text messages, et cetera…"

"Is that even allowed?!" MK said flabbergasted. Had she heard that right? Search history?

"Oh yeah, I'm sure it's against the law but…. well, since everything is being monitored I have to write it on physical paper…" Sally continued to scribble down the challenges with her back turned to Chef who was now whistling to himself the tune of "Gerry Had a Little Lamb."

"When was this a thing?"

"About a month ago before you guys came back here. This didn't exist in your first season. It was like a between-season addition. Chris said too many people were using their phones in their spare time. And so… he just wanted to 'check up on what you were all saying' " Sally laughed.

"What a weirdo," MK said through slightly shallow breathing. Though this did not sound right to her, she still did not want to take any chances. Finally –

"Uh… uh… let's see… I think I got them all… YES! NO! Wait, he scrapped that one and swapped it for – there we go!" Sally said happily as she handed the piece of paper to MK's waiting hands. MK stared down at the page which now had 14 challenges written very neatly.

"You sure you're not punking me?" MK stared suspiciously at Sally who grinned.

"Watch. I don't know what order these are going to happen in but he made us run tests for all of these, I promise! They're coming!" she touched MK's shoulder affectionately.

MK's heart sunk slightly at the fact that these were not in chronological order. So she couldn't get everything handed to her… but still, this was a massive head-start.

"Gotcha. I'll keep a close eye on the next challenge," MK nodded. "Do you really not know what the next one is at least?" she finished desperately.

Sally sighed as she shook her head sadly. "No… but if I had to guess, it's either the 'escape a tower 100 m tall' one or 'TikTok your way out of a piranha tank'. I'm not sure… CYA! Good talk MK!" She turned and waved to MK behind her back as Chef was starting to drive off without her. Sally quickly leaped on to the Boat of Losers and disappeared into the night.

MK glanced down at the bottom-right corner on the paper. A phone number and a lengthy message (no wonder it had taken her so long to write):

Hey! Text and chat with me at 647-282-1902. There's a way to communicate with me without Chris knowing what it is we're saying. Just make sure your first message to me is "Private2024Wawanakwa" (quotation marks INCLUDED).

This should cut you off from the monitoring system and then we'll be able to talk freely. Two other co-workers risked their jobs sneaking off to Chris' private room and finding this info. I could even ask them for more specific details about the order of the challenges if you want. Good luck MK.

Signed, Sally

MK smiled devilishly as she held the paper tightly in her palms. She would gladly wait for that text indeed. And when it came… MK laughed. She would be ready.

AUTHORS NOTES

MK collaborating with an intern serves as a nice twist. It also gives Sally a bit of dialogue.

This concludes Episode 1. Chapter 7 (the start of Episode 2) will be released Saturday. The updated schedule is now once a day starting this Saturday to line up with my AO3 posts. (Right now I have a poll on AO3 and it seems most people want one chapter a day. This is still subject to change if the results of the poll change).

CONFESSIONAL TOTAL (Who will have the most confessionals in the end?...)

I thought it would be fun to keep track of the elimination order and total confessionals at the end of each episode. Maybe you can make some predictions based on the number of confessionals? I will remind everyone this is only the first episode. Those with more confessionals right now are not necesarily the most important characters. Conversely, those with the least number of confessionals may or may not turn things around as the season progresses! With that being said, here are the results after Episode 1:

Julia: 4

Bowie: 4

Raj: 3

Wayne: 3

Ripper: 3

Millie: 2

MK: 2

Nichelle: 2

Priya: 2

Damien: 2

Caleb: 2

Zee: 1

Axel: 1

Chase: 1

Emma: 1

Scary Girl: 0

Emily: 1

ELIMINATION ORDER

NO ELIMINATION (Reward challenge)