Soon, Chris began to walk on the dock. "Last time, on Total Drama Island! The campers were given a break to work on a challenge that wouldn't result in an elimination. We don't want them all going home too quickly. Besides, we still have a few surprises left in store for them this season. The challenge this time was simple. To make an idol. The Killer Bass had the advantage starting out, given who was on the team." The camera cut away to David carving a wooden statue, and then to Enima painting it. "While the Screaming Gophers had a much harder time. In fact, the team even split up into two. One team decided to carve a statue." It cut over to Talia and the others attempting their best to make a boat. "While the other team decided clay was the best option." Then, it cut over to Eleanor's team, making a pretty good clay sculpture. "After all was said and done, I declared Killer Bass the winners for making something that really accentuates my beauty." He showed off his own face. "That's when I revealed the true twist of this challenge. The idol they made would quickly become the immunity idol that they could use in the season. And, I was even nice enough to provide the winning team with a hint on its location." It cut to Chris announcing it in the team. "How will that affect the game going forward? Will I make up for lost time from having a reward challenge?" The sound of a wolf howling could be heard in the background. "And why are there suddenly wolf noises in the back?"

Suddenly, the sight of Chef running onto the dock. "Chris! How many did you order?"

Odd to see him so concerned. "Just ten. I thought it would be an easy challenge."

"Chris, we received a hundred of them!" That was a bit more of a problem.

"What?" The host looked around, panicked. "Find out this time! On Total! Drama! Is- AHH!" He was forced to jump onto the boat next to the dock. "Evacuate! Evacuate!" He yelled out to Chef.

Killer Bass (Boys)

David slowly opened up his eyes, looking at the area around him. "Hmm…?" Something felt off, but he wasn't able to figure out what it was. "Jeremy, are you…?" Once he took in his surroundings, he realised something was off. "Where the hell are we?" Quickly he got out of bed. From the looks of it, their room had completely changed. Not to mention the gentle swaying he kept feeling. "Jeremy!" He yelled out once again.

After a few seconds, a voice called back. "What? Can't you see that I'm trying to sleep?" He slowly got out of his own bed. "The gentle breeze makes me sleepy…"

That wasn't the problem. "And have you ever thought that the breeze was… odd?"

The surfer shrugged. "No, not really." He stretched his arms out. Looking around, he noticed the area around them was completely different from the cabin. "Hmm…" That made sense. "They remodelled."

"Why do I…" David moved to check under his bed. "Our suitcases are still here." He opened it up, freezing slightly. "H-huh?"

Jeremy moved over towards it. "What's wrong?"

Quickly, he closed it. "It's… nothing."

Confessional: David

He twirled around his knife. "So, something was stolen from my suitcase. Not sure if it was because of the transfer, or some other factor." He tried to play it off, but his nervous expression said otherwise.

Screaming Gophers (Boys)

"What the hell…" Jared slowly looked around. "Everyone. Wake up!"

"What could you possibly want… " Jack mumbled out, slowly getting off his bed. "We're trying to…" However, once he fully took in the room around him, he had the opposite reaction to Jared. A small smirk formed on his face. "Finally, Chris thought it fit to give us an actual place to sleep." The room they were in looked rather nice. Almost to his standards.

Jared narrowed his eyes. "This is serious!"

Slowly, Robin opened his eyes. "Saying this is serious is just inviting me to not take it seriously." He also didn't seem to mind their new location. But, judging on the very subtle swaying, he knew exactly where they were. "A cruise ship…"

"You're able to deduce it that easily?" Jared was shocked.

Moving over towards one of the round windows, Robin opened it to take a look outside. "Hmm…" He was right. They were definitely on a boat. And it had to be a cruise, given the room they were in.

Confessional: Robin

"Of course." He leaned back in the confessional booth. He avoided eye contact with the camera. "The moment Chris introduces the immunity idol, he takes us away from the island." Although, there was something that didn't make sense. Finally, his eyes stared down the camera, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Sounds to me like there's something going on."

Screaming Gophers (Girls)

"Talia!" Eleanor called out to her, standing over her bed. "Wake up!"

Slowly, the waitress fluttered her eyes open. "What… I was finally having some good sleep." She rubbed her eyes, sitting up on her bed. When she looked around, it became apparent why. "Where…?" She wanted to care, but it was much too early for this. "Guess today is a challenge day…" That's what she could conclude from this. "Let's see what he wants." She glanced over at the three other girls in the cabin. "And wake them too, or whatever…"

Eleanor moved over to the other girls. She started with Marisa, given she was least likely to yell out at her.

"Huh…" Marisa mumbled out, looking around. "What's going…?" It didn't exactly register to her that they weren't in their cabin.

Once she got out of bed, it slowly began to register. "Wait…"

Since Eleanor woke up Marisa, Talia brought it upon herself to wake up Arianna. "Hey, wake up now."

"Can't you see I'm sleeping…?" Arianna mumbled out semi aggressively. However, after a few seconds, she opened her eyes. "What is it?" However, the swaying did cause her to notice things. "What are we on? A boat?"

If so, that meant that for once then they were somewhere worth a damn.

Of course, that meant that today was going to be a challenge. Letting out a small sigh, Arianna moved over towards the only door out of this room. "Let's go see what Chris wants today."

Killer Bass (Girls)

"Hmm…" Nila hummed to herself. She had already opened the window to figure out where they were now, and the only thing she could conclude was that they were on a boat. "But why…?"

The next person awake was Bella, who let out a small yawn. "What's wrong?"

"Oh! Morning Bella! It appears we are no longer on the island." Nila smiled brightly as she said this.

Not believing her words, Bella moved over towards the window. "What…?" How could that be?

"I suppose it is time to wake up the others." If Bella was up, it meant the others should be waking up soon. Nila might as well speed up the process.

Moving over towards everyone, she shook them awake.

Realising that nobody actually cared about her problems, Historia mumbled something under her breath, following the others, and leaving Mindy behind.

Deck

Now that all the campers had gathered on the deck, they could finally start to get some answers to just what the hell was going on.

"Chris…" Arianna called out. "Not that I hate being here, but what are we doing here?"

The host was walking back and forth, trying to think of what to say. When he finally figured out a lie to tell, he turned to look at everyone else. "We're here because we wanted a change in scenery."

Xi shook his head. "Nice try. Tell us the real reason."
Stopping for a moment, Chris was looking for the best way to phrase his next sentence. "Well, let's just say that with the current state of the island, our next challenge wasn't possible on it."

Still, that was still too vague in the eyes of Marisa. "I know you can elaborate more than just that."

Knowing that if he didn't say anything, more questions would continue to bombard him. "Alright, alright! If you must know, there's currently a wolf infestation on the island."

Tapping her chin, Bella hummed out. "Odd. Last I checked, wolves weren't native to the island. We've never seen them before."

Silence.

Slowly, Bella's expression shifted to one of horror. "Don't… Don't tell me you introduced wolves to the ecosystem…"

"Whaaat?" Chris tried to laugh it off with his iconic smile. "A few wolves won't cause damage to the ecosystem."

Still not buying what he was saying, Bella narrowed her eyes. "How many are a few?"

"Only about ten!"

"..."

"Give or take ninety."

"You what!?" Bella almost ripped out her own hair. "How could you bring a hundred wolves to the island?"

"I agree." Eleanor pouted slightly. "That's highly irresponsible."

Chris didn't feel like being under fire from teenagers, so he tried to move the conversation along. "That's a problem for a different day! For now, we have the challenge for today." Moving towards the edge of the boat, he pointed out towards the island they had been circling for a while. "This is Boney Island. Only about a three hour trip away from our regular island."

The first thing the campers would notice was the large skull rock formation in the center of the island.

"Nice." David spent a few seconds eyeing it. "Why don't we have the season on this island instead?"

"Because the wildlife here is much more dangerous than anything we'd have on Wawanakwa Island." Chris quickly explained.

"Well… You know… Except for a hundred wolves." Robin nodded to himself.

Crossing his arms, Jack shook his head. "What exactly are we doing on this island anyways?"

"Your goal." Chris began to say as the boat slowly crawled to a halt next to the island. "Is to traverse through the island, making your way towards the other end of the island. The first team to fully make it back to the yacht wins immunity for this challenge."

Not wanting to be one to point out the obvious, Arianna still felt like she had to. "Do we get equipment? Last time we had a challenge like this, we were given food rations, tents, and sleeping bags."

"Oh right!" Chris smiled brightly. "I almost forgot!" Long pause, before the smile faded away again. "You aren't getting any of that. Production deemed the challenge too similar to the second one, so we're shaking it up a bit. Any food you eat will have to be foraged or hunted while you stay on the island."

Jeremy lifted his hand up, before speaking up anyways. "Chris, what if we starve to death?"

"You should only be there for a day or two." Chris frowned, before it slowly morphed into a smile. "Not enough for you to starve. And if it takes longer, I'll probably just declare a winner based on who made it to the finish."

"Besides…" Robin hummed out. "It should just be a straight line, so if you're getting lost, that's on you."

"Any other questions?" Chris looked at each individual camper.

When nobody said anything, he moved over towards a different part of the boat. "Then everyone, get off the boat now, the challenge is going to begin."

As Chris said that, Mindy finally arrived, letting out a yawn. "What's going on?"

"Challenge." Historia kept it short, until she realised she had questions of her own. "Why did you sleep in?"

Thinking for a moment, Mindy shrugged, a mischievous smile on her face. "I was doing something else last night, so I ended up staying up late."

Whatever she was doing had to be boring as hell, because Historia immediately lost interest right there.

Boney Island

With both teams disposed of on the beach, they turned to look back at the cruise ship.

"Can we at least get a map?" Jared crossed his arm. "Last time we were provided with one."

Chris pondered this for a mo- "No. This is uncharted territory!"

"What?" Bella blurted out. "There were plenty of other islands here, why did you choose an island like this?"

He had his reasons! Namely. "I chose this island because it's uncharted. Since last time we had you do a trek, all you had to rely on was following the path. This time, your skills will really be put to the test!"

Confessional: Jack

"Tsk, he says that, but can't we just walk along the shore? I'm sure we'll reach the other side without any issue."

Confessional: Robin

"Hopefully the other team is being stupid." He slowly nodded his head. "This island might be uncharted, but going through would still be the fastest solution. Going around is just asking to take the longest path."

Screaming Gophers

"If we're going through uncharted territories." Robin spoke up, deciding he wanted to take the lead. "Maybe you would be fine with me leading. I know a bit about exploration."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Then what were you doing last time we had a challenge like this?"

"Trolling the other team." His hands were far too busy to actually help.

Jared closed one of his eyes, a bit unsure. "I don't think we should be relying on just one person. It should be a two person job to help guide everyone."

Marisa slowly nodded her head. "I'm fine with that."

Talia crossed her arms, sending a glance at him. "You want to volunteer yourself, right?"

The cadet grimaced. "I don't believe I have much of a choice here."

"Now, now." Jack took a step forward. "Why not let someone else try their hand at this?" He smiled confidently.

Confessional: Talia

She rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed. "He had one good challenge, and now he thinks he's some hot shit. Deep down he's just a loser without any talent. How he's managed to make it this far is beyond me."

Jack crossed his arms. "Because of the uncertainty of the island, it would be wise to just go around it completely."

Robin shook his head. "That'd be most unwise. I advise you to reconsider."

Eleanor slowly nodded her head. "We don't… know the layout of this island, so going around it might take more time."

"Tsk…" As always, nobody agreed with his idea. "Then fine, let's do it your way. But I'll have you know the other team is going to think of what I did."

…

"Alright, going around would be pretty dumb." Jeremy mumbled out. "Besides, the thought of exploring an island like this is too much to even consider it."

Nila clapped her hands together. "We may have done poorly before, but most of us here right now are experts in this stuff, right?"

Pause. "Huh…" Historia spoke up, seemingly annoyed. "This song and dance will never end, will it?"

Patting her on the back, Nila gave her a reassuring smile. "I will make sure you perform admirably today."

Reassuring. Oh well, that's all Historia could really hope on at the moment, less she die on an uncharted island.

Further Into the Island

"..." Jared had his arms crossed, trying to hold in some thoughts.

Eleanor didn't say anything, just looking off to the side. "Hmm…"

Talia kept tapping her arm, before she finally spoke up. "Alright, I'll be the one to say it." She turned to look at the rest of the people here. "Why are you following us?"

The camera zoomed out, to show that the Killer Bass was also there.

Jeremy shrugged. "Because we're going in a straight line through the island. There's not much other places we can go."

Xi was also on the same boat as Talia for once. "Yes, but last time you split up from us."

"Some mistake that turned out to be." David rolled his eyes, a grin forming on his face. "Now, we just have to follow you and be fine."

Nila let out a small sigh. "I do not think this is the best way to proceed."

"But splitting up now would be dumb." Historia pointed out, crossing her arms. "There aren't any forks in the path, so there's nothing we can really do."

"Then there's only one thing we can do." Jared adjusted his hat. "We simply run to the other end of the forest." It would be stupid, but at least it would decide a clear winner.

Eleanor seemed to be completely on board with that. "Yes, let's do that!"

"Um. No." Jack crossed his arms, sending a glare towards Jared. "This is unfamiliar territory, and we don't need whatever lives here to think we're food by making a lot of noise."

"Aren't we already making a lot of noises?" Jeremy pointed out with a hum before letting out a little laugh. "Whatever is on this island likely already knows we are here."

"I agree." Robin nodded his head, before deciding to even elaborate further than that. "They already know we're here, given that I hear movements in the trees."

This caused everyone to briefly pause in panic, with Marisa being the first to break the silence. "R-Robin… Please tell me this is one of your jokes."

"I've never once joked in my life." He shook his head, looking towards a few trees. "We have been a loud group as of now, so it's likely to have attracted something that wants food."

As the silence continued… It became pretty obvious that nothing was going to happen.

"Pfft!" David had to resist the urge to laugh. "Nice try trying to scare us." He walked past both groups. "Let's stop worrying about some bullshit like that and-"

As he stepped further into the bush, David found himself frozen as he stared at a group of boars.

Boars that didn't seem to like his presence one bit. "Haha… Yes, well I'll be off-"

With almost no time to react, David barely managed to avoid the rush of boars, which began to rush at everyone else in the group.

"Bella, you're good with animals, right?" Robin didn't bother to move an inch as he watched everyone getting chased, including Bella.

"Birds! Birds and small animals!" She felt the need to correct. "Anything bigger than a dog and I can't!"

"Hmm… Disappointing."

Chaos quickly rose as everyone tried to get away as quickly as possible, which mostly meant getting away from this area, and splitting up.

Of course, with none of them knowing the terrain, they didn't know when there were hills to roll down, and soon, everyone had left the area. Besides two people.

"Um…"" Eleanor looked around, a bit in a panic. "We… We lost everyone."

"A shame." Robin didn't really seem to care. "I'm sure they'll be fine. Boars have never killed anyone before." He liked being wrong sometimes. Turning to look deeper into the forest, he narrowed his eyes. "They've cleared away the boars for now, but we should be careful."

"Huh!? Shouldn't we try and find everyone else?" Eleanor moved over to where she saw a group of people running towards. "I'm worried about Talia and Xi…"

Waving his hand dismissively, Robin shook his head. "They'll be fine." Probably. "For now, we should put our entire focus on making sure we make it to the other end of the island so we don't lose it for the team."

"Oh… OK." Eleanor wasn't sure this was the best course of action to take, but she also didn't want to lose the challenge for her team. "I'll follow your lead."

"Good." Because Robin was pretty confident with his sense of direction. "Then let's go this way."

Soon, the two managed to travel further into the forest of this island.

Jack and Xi

"Ugh…" Jack slowly got to his feet, looking around. "Where…?" He felt like he had hit his head against a rock. Slowly, his focus narrowed in on Xi, who was still unconscious. "Hmm…" He nudged him with his foot. "Get up." He would be damned if he had to spend any time looking after him.

"Hmm…?" Slowly, Xi got to his feet, rubbing his head. "Where are we…?"

From the looks of it, they had been knocked down stream. "As if I'd know… We don't have a map."

Which meant that they didn't even know which direction they should head in. "Unfortunate…" The psychologist crossed his arms. He looked up at the sky. "And it doesn't help that neither of us took notice of the sun before we began to walk."

Confessional: Xi

"This is one of the people I'm least happy to be with." He kept his eyes closed the entire time. "I know I can easily talk to some of the other people, but I know I won't get any leeway with Jack. I'm just wasting my time here."

Xi kept walking back and forth. "This is bad. Out of everyone in our team, I believe we have the worst survival chances." They were both smart, seemingly, but in the wrong field.

"Tsk." The critic crossed his arms. "Arianna is pretty bad too. We both can't stop getting lost."

Oh! Even better! Jack gets lost all the time. "Seems like I'll be the one leading this, then."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "And who put you in charge?"

Xi let out an annoyed sigh. "As if I'd let the man who gets lost all the time in charge. It's better if I do it."

Seems like these two wouldn't get along.

Arianna and Marisa

Well, her luck could have been worse. Not like Marisa was the worst company. Those thoughts occupied Arianna's mind as she sent a glance towards Marisa. She needed to work with her after all.

Marisa, on the other hand, seemed to be in her own little world, walking down the path. "I'm sure we'll reach the other side if we just continue this way."

She wanted to question her about her nature knowledge, but Arianna knew better. From the looks of it, Marisa could be quite the talker, so it would just be best to let her carve the path forward. "You think Chris is running out of ideas?"

"Hmm… Probably." This would be the second time they were forced to hike through a forest. "Not that I mind. Challenges like these are less stressful." As if the first one was any different. "Although, I would have preferred to not be separated from the team."

"I don't really mind. It gives us time to talk one on one." Arianna crossed her arms, a small smirk on her face. "It's very hard to go anywhere without someone seeing."

Marisa sent a glance her way. Was it really worth revealing what she knew about Arianna? No, that would just put a target on her back, especially with the method she used to learn it. "Well, there's not many reasons to secretly talk to someone, right?"

Slowly, Arianna nodded her head. "I suppose you're right. But sometimes… I just worry people will eavesdrop on our conversations." She caught up to Marisa walking beside her. The height difference was apparent.

Marisa let out a small giggle. "You worry a lot. But we don't have to worry here." Time to get down to business. She had a proposal for Arianna, and she was hoping she'd take the bait. The only problem was that she also worked with Xi on the other elimination…

Confessional: Marisa

"I hope I'm reading the room right. One false move, and Arianna is turning against me to save herself. But I see no other way to get revenge on Xi. Not with how the team is right now. However, if she wants myself, Jack, and Robin in an alliance, it could only be to take out someone."

Taking a deep breath, Marisa figured she might as well fully send it. "We need to vote Xi out."

Arianna raised an eyebrow hearing that. "Oh? Why do you think that?"

With Arianna, it was impossible to tell where her mind was. "I just think socially, he's a threat." Marisa revealed, glancing back at Arianna.

Arianna glanced the other way, deep in thought. "I suppose that should be something we need to worry about."

Marisa narrowed her eyes slightly, seeing right through all the fakeness. "If we get Jack and Robin on board, we have a real chance of sending him home."

Frowning slightly, Arianna shook her head. "But we're missing a fifth vote. What if they all vote together?"

That wasn't a problem. Marisa had Catrina on her side. "Well, I doubt his influence extends to that many people."

"I suppose." Not like Arianna wouldn't go along with this idea. It's her best chance at winning right now.

Confessional: Arianna

"Clearly, Marisa has to be thinking of somebody else." Arianna had her arms crossed. "While Xi is a huge threat, I can't discount Marisa just yet. I don't need her alliance showing up at the end and fucking me out of the money."

"I'd be willing to go along with this idea." Arianna smiled sweetly at her. "You seem to have a good head on your shoulder, so I'll trust your judgement."

Those empty words didn't have much of an affect on Marisa, given she knew the truth. "Alright, then it's settled. Next time we lose, we try to take him out." As much as Marisa wanted to vote out Xi, she didn't just want to lose on purpose.

Shifting her focus back to the way forward, Marisa frowned. "For now, we should worry about making our way to the other end of the island."

"Of course." Arianna held her hands behind herself as she walked.

Catrina and Mindy

While most of the people had ended up with people from their team, Mindy and Catrina were the only ones who hadn't.

"Wake up…" Mindy had said softly to Catrina, shaking her body. They had ended up near a lake on the island, but they still couldn't get their bearings.

Quickly, the DJ slapped her hand away. "I'm getting up, mom!" Once she realised she wasn't at home, she glanced over at Mindy. "And what are you doing here?"

Right, the last time they had any form of interaction was during the water challenge. "Oh! Well! We both woke up here!"

That still didn't tell her why she bothered to wake her up. Slowly, Catrina sat herself up. "And why not just leave me behind. We're on opposite teams."

"OH!" Well she couldn't explain that one.

Confessional: Mindy

"After that talk with Nila the other day, I've been thinking on what to do. I need to make it up to Catrina… somehow. I guess an opportunity has fallen into my lap today."

Mindy let out a sigh. "I'm not just going to leave you unconscious on an uncharted island." She was better than that, at the very least.

"OK, that's good and all." Catrina placed her hands on her hips. "But where the fuck are we even?"

"Huh…" Mindy thought for a moment. "I… Actually, I don't know…" Maybe it would be best to reach the coast first…

"Ugh!" Catrina held her head in her hands. "This is fucking hopeless! How the hell are we supposed to even find our way, when we have no idea where we are?"

Letting out a sigh, Mindy shook her head, looking back at the lake. "This water has to lead to the ocean, right?"

"Fuck if I know." Instead, Catrina was going to choose to ignore it. "Let's just pick a direction and pray."

Confessional: Mindy

Letting out a heavy sigh, she shook her head. "She's going to make this much more difficult than it needs to be. Ugh, why couldn't I have needed to apologise to someone nicer." Long day in store for Mindy.

"I don't think that's wise." Despite saying that, Mindy still chose to follow her.

Something Catrina was quick to pick up on. "If it's not wise, why are you following me?"

"Oh!" Well, Mindy couldn't admit the real reason, so she just started whistling.

Which left Catrina to think of her own answers. "I know exactly what you are doing." Stopping to just point at her, she narrowed her eyes. "You're just trying to make sure you can follow me so your team can win."

W-Woah that was not it at all. "What? Why would you think that?" For a moment, Mindy was genuinely offended, and that was already hard to do. "I just figured it would be best to travel together in case we ran into another animal. Being alone is just asking for death."

Spending a few seconds trying to think of a counter, Catrina came up with nothing. "Fine… But I have my eyes on you." She wasn't going to trust her that easily.

From the looks of it, Mindy really had her work cut out for her.

Jeremy and David

"Look, I'm not one to ask questions…" David had a small cocky smile on his face. "But…" It quickly faded away. "Where did you find the machete?"

Quickly, Jeremy began to swing it around. "I found it on this island, isn't it great!?"

The shady guy raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this island uncharted?"

Jeremy lowered the sword, losing his expression. "It's uncharted, not unexplored. Nobody made a map, idiot"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Wee!" He swung the sword around again like nothing happened.

At this point, David was convinced that he was a lost cause. "You said you were good at navigating islands?"

Lowering the sword, the surfer sheathed it inside his own pants. "Yeah, I've been to a few in my life."

Who was he to stop a master at his job? "Then…" He took a few steps back, making way for him. "Show me how it's done."

The surfer watched him for a few seconds before pointing the opposite way. "It's actually that way."

"Fuck-" Off to a great start, David. "Whatever, just show me the way…"

Cracking his knuckles, Jeremy had a mischievous smile on his way. "Make way for captain Jeremy!"

"Captain?" David raised an eyebrow as he followed him. "Who the hell made you captain?"

"My dad, after he was mysteriously lost at sea."

When it came to Jeremy, David was never sure what parts to actually take seriously from him. "Yeah, yeah… Whatever." So he was going to assume everything he did was a joke and call it a day.

Confessional: David

"Everyday I have to spend stuck with Jeremy, is another day I wish I didn't throw my vote last time." David felt like he was great with most people, but there was just something about Jeremy that made him difficult. "Unfortunately, I don't really have any other potential allies except Historia. But I have to vote off Enima before she'll work with me." This was going to be hell.

Bella and Enima

Things could have been worse. Enima should count herself lucky that she got lost with someone with as much natural sense as Bella. "Got any ideas." She placed a hand on her hip.

"Um…" The nature lover wasn't exactly sure. "This is uncharted territory, so…" Although she knew she'd think of something.

Most of the confidence she has was immediately washed away from her. "Are you sure? There's nothing we can do?"

"Oh! Um!" The quiet girl looked up at the sky, pointing at the sun. "At least this way we can tell which way is North or South." It was still pretty early in the day, so she was able to tell where the sun was rising from. "We arrived on the Northern side, so." She pointed over toward the direction they should go. "This is the path forward."

Ah, there it was. Enima knew she could trust Bella with this type of thing.

Confessional: Enima

She had her arms crossed, and a cocky grin on her face. "You know, I probably shouldn't have gone out of my way to anger the wildlife, but I needed some way to split up the group. And then I just so happen to end up with Bella." She shrugged, playing it off. "Fine by me. I'll need her if I want to take down David, after all."

"I've been meaning to talk." Enima slowly approached Bella, who was finding a suitable path for travel.

However, before the mysterious girl could even elaborate, Bella turned to look at her. "Is this about a future vote?"

"Huh…" To Enima, Bella was just the sweet girl who didn't really know what was going on, so this definitely came as a shock. "Yeah, I guess so." She frowned, crossing her arms.

Confessional: Bella

The nature lover had a frown on her face. "I don't want to have to worry about any votes right now. I thought this game would be fun, but clearly there are people conspiring in the background. If I want any chances of winning, I might need to pair myself up with someone. Especially since Christopher is gone. And if it has to be Enima, then so be it."

Enima spent a few seconds looking at her, before continuing the conversation. "Didn't think that you of all people would be the type of person to care about such a thing."

"Well, it is a game of strategy." As much as Bella didn't want it to be, it was the truth. And something she was going to have to get used to really soon.

As she moved down the path she found, she glanced up at the sky. "Based on how big the island was, we should be able to reach the other side before nightfall."

"And if we don't…?" Enima crossed her arms. The idea of being stuck here overnight didn't fill her with joy. Especially since Chris made it obvious he wasn't spending the night here.

"Well, sleeping out here should be fine." Bella didn't seem to mind the other possibility. "We've both slept out in the wild."

Rolling her eyes, Enima closed the distance between the two. "Yeah, but we at least had a tent." Not that Bella had been blessed with anything like that.

Confessional: Enima

"Pfft…!" Enima rolled her eyes, holding back a laughter. "I've done a lot of camping in my days, which included without a tent. My dad took me all the time." That smile on her face quickly faded as she grew more serious. "I just want Bella to think she's important for now. I just need her help to take David out before the merge, and then it's all set."

Now that Bella was pretty confident in their path going forward, she turned to look at Enima. "So, what about the vote you wanted to talk about?"

Right, she did mention that. "Well, you lost one of your allies, and my only ally isn't really being cooperative." Enima stuffed her hands in her pockets. "So I was wondering if we could form some kind of temporary alliance."

"Temporary?" The idea of that didn't sound too great, but Bella would be willing to listen. "Why does it have to be temporary?"

"Well…" Enima didn't exactly want to give an exact answer, so she had to find an excuse. "It's more so an alliance to vote out a specific person." Turning back to look at Bella, a grin formed on Enima's face. "Namely… I think we should get out David."

For a bit, Bella's face remained neutral, until a small smile finally formed on her face. "That's something I can work towards."

Confessional: Bella

"Finally!" She seemed relieved. "Finally someone else wants to work with me to get David out. Christopher didn't want to, and I doubt some portion of the team would want to either. Working with Enima might not be so bad, actually."

Historia and Nila

Slowly, Historia opened her eyes, having been shaken awake by someone. "Huh…?" When she finally regained focus, her vision was focused entirely on- "AH!" She quickly moved away, realising where she had been staring at. "Nila? What are you doing here?"

"We got separated from the group." The trainee began to say. "We wound up together, so I was just trying to wake you up."

Right… That entire thing from earlier. Clutching her head, the scholar slowly got to her feet. "Ugh…"

"Is this not perfect?" Nila clapped her hands together, not really caring that they were stuck on an uncharted island. "This is perfect for your training!"

"H-huh?" She had completely forgotten all about that. "But we're on an island, there's no time to-" The look she received from Nila was unlike any she had ever seen. Almost as if she was about to take full pleasure in what was going to happen here. "H-huh-Wait"

"Get running." The trainee said softly, in an intimidating tone.

"W-wait!" She didn't want to, but it would seem like she'd have no choice but to comply. "OK! OK!" Against her own will, she began to run.

Confessional: Historia

She had a hand on her hip. "I'm thankful to Nila for putting the effort in to get me more in shape, but sometimes she can be really scary. I thought she was just this sweet girl." Then again, she saw her destroy Chef before, so maybe that wasn't the case.

Confessional: Nila

"I was taught that the easiest way to train is to get into a routine! If you train everyday, it gets easier, right?" She was a bit unsure of it all, but she would remain optimistic. "It may be harder to start off, but if she can get into a habit, it becomes harder to break!"

As Historia continued to run, one thing became very clear. "Are we even running in the right direction?" She wasn't an expert on island traversal, but they hadn't stopped to even check.

"Worry about that after!" Although she was pretty confident they were going in the right direction, given she had done survival training before.

Alright, Historia was beginning to feel exhausted. "God… I…" She stopped, placing a hand on the nearest tree. "Just give me a break…"

"Wow…" Nila stopped beside her, frowning slightly. "You really are out of shape…"

"Why are you so mean to me?" As if Historia wasn't used to people being mean to her. Once she had regained a normal breathing pattern, she looked around. "How did we lose the rest of our team anyways?"

"Hmm…" Nila hummed out, trying to think. "I am not quite sure. However, I have no doubts that they are well on their way to the end right now. So we should make haste."

Rolling her eyes, Historia let out a sigh. "Yeah, yeah. I'm going…" She began her run again, this time, a more bearable pace.

Talia and Jared

"This is great…" Talia had her arms crossed, standing next to Jared, who was mostly remaining silent. Slowly, her eyes drifted over towards him.

Jared was stroking his chin with his hand. "Hmm…" After a few seconds he glanced over towards Talia. "It could be worse."

"Ugh…" The two were left unscathed, and had successfully escaped the beast that had been hunting them down. "That's good and all, but our current predicament isn't anything to write home about."

"Yes… Yes…" Jared slowly nodded his head. When the camera zoomed out, they would be stuck on a rock formation, with a bear roaming around the bottom. "We'll need some sort of distraction."

Talia let out a heavy sigh. "We don't really have any form of distractions, though."

Taking off his hat, Jared examined it. "I could just throw this at it. Maybe it could work."

"As if that'd work!" Besides, Talia liked his hat. She grabbed it from his hands, putting it back on his head. "Maybe we just wait for it to get bored."

Confessional: Jared

He had a small smile on his face. "Now, being trapped by a bear is no laughing matter, but we weren't in any direct danger, so it was nice to be able to spend time with Talia. Although, I don't believe she had the same idea as I did."

While Jared was thinking of something to throw as a distraction, Talia was examining the rock structure they were currently on. The path they took here had crumbled away, so they couldn't jump back to the ledge without risking a fall. "Hmm…"

However, she did notice that one side of the rock formation wasn't too steep. They could probably just slide down it. "Once the bear goes away, I know exactly how we're going to get out of it."

No other words had to be exchanged as Jared spared a glance down the less steep side. "That could work." His eyes moved over towards the bear, which had just stood up on its hind legs. "But once again, we're going to be waiting a while."

Confessional: Talia

She had her arms and legs crossed. "I didn't really mind spending time up there with him. There are worse people on my team I could have been paired with." She could name a few to start, but she refrained from doing so. Talia glanced off to the side, a rare smile on her face. "Besides, Jared makes for good company."

Jared knelt down, despite how little room they already had. "Here, I'll do this." He picked up a rock, tossing it in the air a few times to test out its weight. Tipping his hat down, he managed to chuck it into one of the nearby bushes.

This caused the bear to briefly get distracted by them, and to check out the noise that was just made.

Extending his hand out, Jared grabbed onto Talia's hand. "This is about to be bumpy." He warned her, before letting himself slide down the less steep part of the rock formation.

And, although Talia was very much not on board with this idea, she didn't say anything as the two of them slid down.

Once they were at the bottom, Jared kept holding her hand. "Let's go!"

And the two were off.

Eleanor and Robin

Out of everyone she could have been stuck with… This definitely felt like the weirdest pairing. Eleanor took a look at Robin, who wasn't really paying attention to where they were going. "Robin, you're smart, right?"

"Hmm?" Robin closed the book he had. "Yeah, I'd say I'm above average. Why do you ask?"

"Oh!" She hadn't expected him to respond so quickly. "Well…" Eleanor glanced deeper into the forest. "I'm great with nature, but…" She trailed off, letting out a nervous laugh. "I guess navigating a place like this is a little.."

Stepping past her, Robin nodded his head. "Right, you're hoping to rely on my expertise."

"Yes! Exactly!" Now Eleanor had a little bit of hope in her eyes.

Nodding his head along to her excitement, Robin shook his head. "I'm afraid all my expertise comes in the shape of book smarts. When it comes to nature, I'm clueless."

"W-Well! I can handle the nature part!" Eleanor walked back and forth. "I can identify what plants are good, and which are poisonous."

Robin raised an eyebrow, putting his book into his cloak. "Then what could you possibly need my help for? You seem to know everything there is to know."

"Huh… well…" Eleanor glanced the other way.

Confessional: Eleanor

"I'm great at all those things!" Eleanor smiled earnestly. "But… I don't know. Everyone always says I'm a little dumb with a lot of things, so I was hoping Robin could help me when it came to those things." It was hard to describe.

Almost as if ignoring her pleas, Robin continued forward. "As long as we're going the right way, I don't think anything else matters." Well, finding the rest of the team mattered, but he had no urgency of saving them. All he cared about at the moment was making it to the other side of the island to guarantee his safety.

"Right!" Eleanor followed behind him. She had only spoken to him a few times, but she found it increasingly difficult to even get anywhere with Robin.

Confessional: Eleanor

She let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head. "Robin is… Well…" She didn't know how to phrase it. "He goes at his own pace, and it makes it very hard to have a normal talk with him. Not that I think he's a bad person or anything! But he only seems to have his own interest in mind…" Maybe that was a bad thing?

Jack and Xi

The duo had been travelling for well over an hour, and while the scenery had changed, it didn't help the two of them from feeling hopelessly lost.

"Hmm…" Xi hummed out, gripping onto his sleeve shirt. "Had I known we would be trekking a forest, I would have brought something more appropriate." Slowly, he turned to look at Jack. "Not something you can say for yourself, huh?" Still, after all of this time on the island, the critic still refused to change from his fancy clothes.

"Oh haha." The critic mocked him, passing him. "What I wear is my own concern. Please don't bother yourself with me."

That wasn't the issue here. "Today's a hot day." Xi pointed out, looking up at the sun. "If something were to happen, you'd probably die of a heat stroke before we even reached the other side of the island."

"Tsk." A sly smirk appeared on Jack's face. "Who do you take me for? You think I'd wear clothes like these if the mere heat was enough to take me down?"

Looking him over, Xi wanted to make a comment about how it felt like anything would be able to take him out, but he refrained himself.

Confessional: Jack

"I might be living in Canada now, but I was born in California." He had his arms crossed, the same sly smirk on his face from earlier. "It's going to take a little bit more than just a bit of heat to take me out."

Feeling like worrying about him was pointless, Xi shook his head. "If you say so." Looking back up at the sun, it still seemed to be pretty high up. "We've been walking for a bit. I doubt we'll reach the other side soon."

"Are you suggesting we slow down?" Jack wasn't sure how he felt about that. That could lead to the other team getting there first."

"Merely a break." He shook his head, listening for the sound of a stream. "I'm starting to get thirsty. It would do us no good to collapse on the way there. Neither of us can carry the other."

Thinking about this for a moment, Jack slowly nodded his head. "Alright." He didn't want to carry Xi. Not to mention he had been feeling thirsty for a while as well.

Stopping by the water, he knelt down to investigate the stream. "Although, I'm not sure if it's safe to drink."

"Tsk…" Jack was growing impatient. "Then what was the point? Obviously none of the water would be safe to drink here. We also don't have any tools to heat it up."

"Hmm…" Slowly, Xi stood up, dusting off his pants. "Doesn't mean we can't at least try it out." Still, he didn't like this one bit. Quickly, he gathered some of the water, just enough to quench his thirst. "Alright, when I end up dead, drag my body."

"I'd rather not." Jack approached the stream, looking down. "Whatever… This is barbaric." But he didn't really have any choice, so he followed suit with Xi. "As soon as we reach the end, I'm going to yell at Chris."

Confessional: Jack

"I'm going to have some choice words with Chris after this entire challenge." He gripped onto his sleeve. "To have us work in such barbaric conditions… This is not what I signed up for." Slowly, he stood up. "At least he was nice enough to provide a confessional on this island." Why was there a confessional on this island?

After drinking bacteria filled water, the two continued on their way. "Hmm…" Xi thought for a moment, turning his attention towards Jack. Now might be the best time to talk to him, one on one. "So, about this game…" He trailed off, thinking of how to handle it. "The game is getting pretty far along now, how well do you think your chances are?"

"Hmm…" Jack crossed his arms. "I think my chances are pretty good. I helped out a lot last time." And that was the only time. "Though, I suppose I do seem to be missing some allies. Cameron going home was a bummer."

Xi held back a chuckle. "That was unfortunate, wasn't it?"

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Why do you think so? Weren't you one of the people who voted him off?"

Oh, well, guess it wasn't that hidden. "What about it? I might have been, but who cares, it was a strategic move."

A strategic move? Jack couldn't exactly fault him for that. "But wouldn't someone like Robin make more sense to vote off? I'd be more worried about him."

True, but Robin hadn't exactly taken a role of leadership. In fact, Robin had mostly stuck to himself. "As of yet, he isn't on my radar."

That was disappointing. "But that doesn't tell me why Cameron." Besides Arianna, Cameron was the only person he could tolerate.

Xi slowly shook his head. "Because he was building up an alliance, obviously. How is someone like me supposed to stand up to him when he could easily group everyone up into one group. Now that the leader is gone, all of you are left on their own."

"Hmm…" Jack glanced off to the side. "And you should be telling me this… why?"

"Because anyone with a brain can figure that out." Xi rolled his eyes. Soon, he stopped to look at the waterfall that the stream was leading to. "We'd have to find a way around."

Jack narrowed his eyes slightly as he saw the waterfall. "Don't suppose we can find a way up there, no? A vantage point wouldn't be bad to consider at this time."

That did sound like a good idea, except for one fact. Xi crossed his arm. "No. We'd just be wasting time. Let's go around and see where that leads up.." He stepped away from the stream, trying to find a better way.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Jack followed him.

Confessional: Xi

"Hmm…" Xi was contemplating something as he sat here. "As of now, I have no use for Jack. If anything, he's just an easy vote next time we get. If I can rally the votes, that is. He's probably close to Robin and Marisa, and I wouldn't doubt if Arianna saw some use in him. That's why, the first chance I get, I'm going to cut him loose."

Catrina and Mindy

Against both of their judgements, and the fact they were on opposite teams, they were both travelling together.

"We're probably going to get yelled at by our teams." Catrina shook her head as they made it further into the island.

"Hmm…" Mindy hummed out, shrugging. "I wouldn't really care about what they think. It's meaningless anyways."

Catrina glanced over at her, before shaking her head. "Of course you'd be fine with it, you're probably in a good position when it comes to your team."

Slowly, a grin appeared on Mindy's face. "You could say something like that. I don't see a reason why they'd vote me off now. I haven't gotten involved in any of the drama on my team."

Oh? Catrina looked over at her. "Speaking of which, I don't really get to see what happens with your team. What kind of drama is there?"

Well… Mindy wasn't one to just turn down gossip like this. "I'd gladly tell you anything I know." But what to start with? "Well, first of all, there's the matter of our last vote."

"I mean, nothing felt off about that vote. Christopher didn't really seem like one of your strong players." Catrina noted as she stepped onto a rock to try and get a better vantage point.

"Huh… Well, it wasn't an out there vote… But no. The real problem was that five other people had received votes." Mindy let out a small laugh.

"Heh?" Catrina was shocked to hear that.

Confessional: Catrina

"What the hell is going on with the other team?" She held her hair a bit. "Our team has only ever had one large target, or two big targets. How can six people receive votes? It's abnormal. I'd fucking die on that team!"

Seeing her reaction, Mindy couldn't help but laugh. "Our team really is a mess. But you should have seen us when Josef was around. It was always messy."

Crossing her arms, Catrina shook her head. "From what I heard, he was always yelling."

"For the most part, it was justified." Mindy was having fun with this conversation. "Our team was pretty terrible at times. But I think we've gotten rid of all the useless people. Well… Mostly!"

Raising an eyebrow, Catrina stopped walking. "Mostly? How the hell would you still have anyone useless on your team? You've lost four people already. Who's the weak link?"

"Historia." Mindy answered without any hesitation. "Although, Nila is trying to keep her around. She sees potential or… something…"

However, talking about Nila, Mindy seemed to remember something. "Wait, that reminds me!" She took a step towards Catrina. "I've been meaning to-"

"Stop…" Catrina hid in a nearby bush. "Did you hear that?"

What? Mindy didn't hear anything-

SNAP!

Mindy wasted no time hiding in the same bush as before.

Taking a deep breath, the first person to bother to peek was Catrina. "Fuck… It's the same damn beast from earlier."

"Shit…" Mindy joined her in cursing, realising just how poor of a situation they found themselves in. "What do we do…?"

What could they even do? "Just wait it out…" Catrina hid herself back into the bush. "We can't outrun it, so there's no point."

That was boring, but Mindy didn't want to risk her life trying to run past it. Letting out a small sigh, she got herself comfortable in the bush.

Eleanor and Robin

They had been travelling for a bit, but everything still looked the same. "Are you sure we aren't travelling in circles?" Eleanor mumbled out.

Robin, on the other hand, didn't bother looking up from his book. "If we were walking in circles, I think that would involve turning. We haven't turned once."

That was true, so Eleanor wasn't going to ask again. "Then this must be a rather large island."

Closing the book, Robin put it back in his cloak. "We saw it on the way here. It's likely this takes more than just a day. We should start worrying about setting up camp somewhere around here."

Ah! Camping! Eleanor had fond memories of that challenge. "Should we find a hill to sleep on?"

Slowly, a small smile formed on Robin's face. "See, you're remembering what we did. Also finding a stream would be nice as well." They hadn't found a water source yet, and Robin was starting to get thirsty. Although, he knew he could hold off a lot longer if he needed to.

As they continued to walk, something nagged at the back of Eleanor's brain, and she turned to look at Robin. "You know, I've been curious for a while. You seem like a very intelligent person… But I don't really remember you doing anything."

If Robin could feel emotion, that would almost hurt. "Hmm? What do you mean? I won the hide and seek challenge."

That WAS true, but… "I mean…" She brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I thought you'd have accomplished more."

Confessional: Eleanor

"Now, don't misunderstand me." Eleanor quickly shook her head. "I think Robin is a great help." She hummed out, thinking about what to say next. "I just thought… Someone like him would have helped more, you know?"

It didn't take long for Robin to understand what she meant. "I see what you mean… In a game like this, it's best not to show a full hand." Something Robin was akin to doing

"O-Oh!" Well, Eleanor could fault him for that. "But, I haven't really shown what I can do either."

You know, now that she mentioned it. "All I really know you can do is forage, and you are decent with nature."

Which only begged the question.

"What can you do?"

Almost as if ignoring Robin's warning, Eleanor was happy to elaborate. "Well, because my father owns a farm, I've always worked on it in the morning. I've definitely built up some muscles."

Letting out a snicker, Robin shook his head. "You don't seem like much." He didn't spot any muscle on her, but maybe it was just a sleeper build.

Finding a nearby stump, Robin sat down. "Alright, let's arm wrestle."

"U-um!" Not that Eleanor had a problem with it, but… "Shouldn't we try and find our way to the end?" Still, she sat down across from him, getting ready to arm wrestle.

Robin shook his head. "No, this shouldn't take too long." He knew he could easily beat Eleanor.

Grabbing onto her hand, Robin began to count down. "Three… Two… One… Go!"

And he was right.

It didn't take too long…

Because Eleanor slammed his fist into the stump.

Remaining still for a bit, Robin finally let out a low hum. "Ah. You weren't kidding." He moved his hand away, rubbing it slightly, looking for any splinters. "You don't appear as much, but you are definitely a strong individual." He would use this for his own advantage at the earliest convenience.

Slowly, Robin stood up, ready to set off again. "Thank you for the demonstration."

"You aren't… Hurt, are you?" Eleanor approached him to inspect his hand.

Quickly moving it away, Robin shook his head. "No, don't worry about it. If I'm hurt, it's my own fault." Turning to face the forest, he frowned slightly. "Besides, we still have a long way to go before we can even reach our goals."

It didn't help that he didn't have any idea where the rest of the team was, or even where the other team was.

It would probably be an uphill battle, given they were more people, and the rest of the team probably found themselves in similar positions.

"Let's go." Robin ordered, making sure Eleanor was following behind him.

Bella and Enima

At the moment, it would seem like Bella was alone. Nobody was directly beside her, and Enima didn't even seem to be anywhere in reach.

However, Bella didn't seem to be panicking or anything… Because she knew exactly where Enima was. Letting out a small sigh, she eventually turned her gaze to the branches above. "Find the way forward?"

Enima had adopted a different approach to this challenge. "No, nothing." Testing her weight on the branch she was standing on, she leaped over to the next tree.

And while Bella knew she probably wouldn't be able to do that herself, it made her want to attempt it anyways. "You seem like you're having fun."

"There's a ton of trees back where I grew up." Enima tried to climb higher, with some problems, but she still managed to pull herself up. "Would climb them all the time. Granted, they were different trees…" These branches were different, and the leaves irritated her more than the ones at home.

Looking down at Bella, Enima thought of something. "You probably know a lot about trees." Given that they weren't getting anywhere by gaining height, Enima let herself fall down safely.

Bella had to move to the side quickly, just in case Enima failed the landing. "Yeah, I would say I do. Trees and animals and… Well, honestly anything living is kind of my specialty." Once again, she seemed happy to be talking about it.

Confessional: Enima

She had the most dull expression on her face. "I… Don't know why I even asked her about trees… She went on for ten minutes…" She took Nila's knife out, and almost looked about ready to end it all there.

Confessional: Bella

"You know, it's very hard to find someone who's even interested in what I like. I'm happy Enima took the time to listen to me." She doesn't know.

After a gruelling ten minutes of nothing but trees, Enima began to see hope. "Hey, wait a second." She had to cover her eyes, because the sun was starting to get in the way. "We might be getting close."

This was good.

Bella had completely shut up about her tangent. "Oh, we should make it out of the forest and see where we end up."

As the two made it out of the forest, they quickly realised that they had begun to approach the shore.

"Oh…" Bella didn't seem pleased to see that. "I thought we were making our way to the other end of the island."

But there was no Chris in sight.

However, Enima wasn't ready to give up. "You know what I spotted?" A devilish grin appeared on her face. "I see the yacht in the distance." Which could mean that they were close. "Let's cut through the forest for a shorter path."

Having no reason to disagree, Bella followed her back into the forest.

David and Jeremy

The two boys had made decent progress, almost unhindered by the thick foliage that covered this part of the island.

Almost as if someone had a sharp tool they could use to help…

Anyways, Jeremy kept slashing at the leaves with his machete. "We're making good progress."

Sometimes, it was fun to watch someone else do all the work, which is why David didn't raise any objections. "How much longer do we have?"

"Oh, right, hold on." Jeremy ripped off a large leaf from the nearest tree. Then, lying down like a school girl colouring, he began to make a map using the machete.

When it was finally done, Jeremy stood up, showing David the map. "As you can see, I don't know where we are."

If murder was legal, David would have strangled Jeremy. Unfortunately, this wasn't a perfect world. "You could have just told me that instead of wasting time."

Rolling up the shitty map, Jeremy shrugged. "Yeah, but this was more fun."

"Why are you only like this around me?" David crossed his arms. "Around everyone else, you act like an idiot, yet when it's only us two, you actually seem to have a brain."

Jeremy slowly nodded, searching deeply for an answer.

Then… He figured it out.

"Have you ever considered the fact that I just look smart compared to you?"

This is exactly what David meant. "Is the stupid an act?" Because when it's just the two of them, Jeremy is actually able to come up with comebacks.

Deciding that standing around doing nothing was pointless, Jeremy began to walk forward, further into the forest. "I wouldn't really say it's an act." Calling it that wouldn't be doing it any justice.

Confessional: Jeremy

He had his arms crossed, looking the other way. "I don't really trust David with personal information, so I won't be able to tell him the full story. But hey, maybe one day all of you at home will find out." He let out a small chuckle.

"Just…" Jeremy was finding a hard lie to tell. "I have some problems." That was vague, and David wouldn't be able to use this against him in the future.

He offered the shady guy a smile.

And while David wanted to prod more, he knew that wouldn't get him anywhere. "Just keep making a way forward. I want to finish this challenge before the end of the day."

Confessional: David

"This challenge is such an inconvenience." He waved his knife around without a care in the world. Gritting his teeth, he narrowed his eyes. "Something was stolen from me recently, and I have to figure out where it went. Or else I'm a dead man…"

Historia and Nila

Finally, exhaustion caught up with her, and Historia was forced to collapse on the ground. "I think… That's enough training… For today…" She mumbled out through tired breaths.

Looking down at her, Nila kept a mostly neutral expression, before it morphed into a sweet smile. "Yes! I think that was enough for today! You may rest up!" However, true to her own nature, Nila wasn't just going to stand around doing nothing.

Watching her the entire time, Historia frowned. "You should take a break too."

"Huh? But a break does not suit me. I feel like I need to constantly be moving." Nila ran up to her, before heading towards the nearest tree. "Besides, it would be good to scout out the nearby area while you rest."

Watching her reminded Historia of something she'd rather not be thinking about. "You remind me of myself when I studied back at home. I always had to do it or else I felt useless…"

For once, that got Nila to stop running. Slowly, she walked back over to her. "Why do you feel the need to always study?"

No, they weren't having this conversation again! "Forget it." Quickly, Historia stood up. If they just kept moving, she could avoid this conversation entirely. "I'm well rested now." It was a lie, but Nila had already pried too much into her past, and she didn't need her to do it anymore.

However, Nila didn't believe that in the slightest. So much so, that she was going to put it to the test. "Alright!" She clapped her hands together. "We can start running again!"

"R-running?" Historia knew she ran the risk of this happening, and yet she still wasn't ready. Of course, she couldn't turn it down. "Alright…" And while the running this time was strained, she knew she had to push herself if she wanted to avoid any further questions.

"That's the spirit!" Nila called out, almost running laps around her. "If you are tired, sometimes you have to push yourself until you can no longer go!"

This felt more like torture at this point. "Only… five more minutes… and then I give up…" Historia wasn't even sure if she could make it another five minutes.

"Sounds good to-" Nila didn't continue her sentence. "I hear water." She finally said, running off into the woods.

"H-hey!" Historia had no choice but to run after her. "Don't just abandon me…"

When Nila reached the clearing, there was a small stream of water. "Ah! There we go. Historia! This way!"

After a few agonising steps, Historia was finally able to reach the stream that Nila had found. "Water…?" She was almost begging as she fell down to her knees. She scooped up the water, and began drinking it.

"Hmm…" Nila hummed out, watching her. "Most people try to boil the water to make sure it is safe."

Quickly, Historia spat out the water. "Why is the wilderness so… Difficult." She didn't want to admit that she was sheltered, but every day it just held more weight.

After looking at the water for a few seconds, Nila scooped up some water. "We do not exactly have the equipment to boil, so we might as well drink a little." A small amount shouldn't make them sick.

After drinking, Nila turned her attention towards Historia. "And the wilderness is difficult because we no longer have the need to go out and live here." Of course, some people still do it for fun. Hell, Nila was one of those people.

Letting out a sigh, Historia took a small sigh of water. "The problem is that I've been coddled my entire life, so I guess I've never had to learn how difficult everything was."

If this was her life right now… What was it going to be when she had to take care of herself? She didn't know how to cook, she didn't know how to… "Oh god…" With each passing second, realisation struck her hard.

All the times she's made fun of people for performing poorly in school… It would all be turned against Historia when she grew up and had to leave the house.

"We should go…" Historia eventually concluded, not wanting to spend anymore time thinking about the matters. Even if she felt exhausted, it would at least take her mind off of things.

Nila could sense that something was on her mind, but also knew that the best solution was to keep going. "You are right." Standing up, she watched the direction the stream went. "Follow me. We should at least follow the stream. It might lead us to a good spot."

Arianna and Marisa

As the two rather proud individuals continued their trek through the island, neither wanted to admit reality.

Nor did they want to point the blame to the other, because it wasn't anyone's fault in particular.

But the very irrefutable fact of the matter was that…

They were lost.

"Is it just me?" Arianna let out a sigh. It happened with Jack, and now Marisa. "Am I the problem here?"

Marisa wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, so she only offered a shake of the head. "Whatever it is, there's no point blaming yourself."

"Tell me…" Arianna had stopped walking, crossing her arms. Her tone of voice was dripping with hints of anger. "Do you even know where we are in relation to where we need to be?"

"Well…" Marisa's eyes trailed off to the unfamiliar scenery. "I don't think we'll ever figure out where we are."

Every ticking second, Arianna felt her emotions slowly boiling over. Unfortunately, she couldn't let out a volley of swears like she would have intended, given that Marisa was still right next to her. "It's fine… Fine…"

Sensing some unease, Marisa shook her head. "If you want to scream, just scream."

"What? Why would I want to scream?" Arianna's eye twitched slightly, but the rest of her face was very good at concealing her emotion. "It's just frustrating that we've done a challenge similar to this, and won."

"We only won because the other team got unfortunate, remember." Marisa pointed out. "They lost out on two markers, which is what gave us the win. For all intents and purposes, they beat us in the race."

That was true, and definitely an angle that Arianna was ignoring. Glancing off to the side, she crossed her arms, pouting slightly. "I've never had to deal with forests much, so I've always had a bad sense of direction."

"Well… My sense of direction isn't awful, but having a reference point would be nice." Because there'd be no point in going in a direction when they were uncertain. Looking up at some of the trees, Marisa began to look around.

Not knowing what she was thinking about, Arianna got an awful idea. "Don't tell me you want to climb a tree to get a vantage point."

"Well, not yet, at least." Marisa had something else in mind. "If we could find a point of reference, it would make it easier to know where we went."

"..." Looking around some more, Arianna failed to see her point. "All I see are trees."

"Yeah… I realised that now." Still, Marisa was going to spend some time looking around, trying to find the tallest tree.

After landing on one, Marisa pointed over towards it. "We can try and use this tree for reference. We don't have to climb up it, but if we get turned around, we can look for this tree."

Still, that wasn't doing it for Arianna. "It's just going to blend in with the rest of them. Besides, there isn't anything unique about it, except for it being tall, but any tree could be taller than their peers."

Confessional: Marisa

"Listen, journalism is my strong suit. Drop me in a forest, and I'm useless at best, and a hindrance at worst." Letting out a heavy sigh, she leaned her head back in the confessional.

Seeing that this line of thinking was pointless, Marisa let out a sigh. "Then let's just wander around hopelessly." Because that's all they could really do at this point.

Jared and Talia

Running.

Nonstop running.

With a bear being so close to where they were, they couldn't risk that it caught up to them, so the duo was forced to keep running.

Surprisingly enough, Talia was able to keep up with the running. Sure, she wasn't as fast as Jared, who had to slow down just so she wasn't abandoned, but… Talia had the stamina to keep going.

"Do… Do you think it's not after us anymore?" Although, Talia still had difficulties breathing after running for so long.

Taking a moment to listen to the nature around them, Jared eventually stopped, allowing himself to catch a breath. "No… I think we've managed to slip away from it." Good, because he was starting to run out of stamina.

And as much as Talia wanted to give the illusion that she was fine, she felt herself almost completely drained. "That… At least covers my morning run." Even with the time being closer to the afternoon.

Given that it seems like the two of them would rest, Jared decided to sit down on a log. "Well, that's definitely longer than any runs I'd go for in the morning." Not to mention faster. Normally he isn't running for his life. His attention then turned to Talia. "You're a pretty good runner."

Talia had sat down to adjust her shoes. "You've already seen me run. Not to mention you've seen that I'm decently athletic."

"Right…" Jared probably didn't even need to point that out. "Still, it's nice to see. Most of the other people left aren't like that in the slightest. Any reasons you run all the time?"

"Isn't it obvious? To keep in shape." Talia crossed her arms, but there seemed to be another underlying issue.

Picking up on this subtlety, Jared frowned slightly. "Is that the only reason, or is there something else?"

"I've mentioned before that I'm a waitress. As much as it pains me to admit, I tend to get much larger tips compared to other waiters." A fact Talia only seemed to slightly hate. She wouldn't really say no to more money. "Of course, I'd lose out on those extra tips if I don't at least attempt to keep myself in shape."

Taking a deep sigh, Talia leaned her head back. "Besides, it helps get out some of the anger I have."

"I've… Noticed that you seem to be angry most of the time." Jared felt like he was walking on needles during this conversation. He wanted to learn more about Talia, but he also didn't want to enrage her.

"Oh really? Didn't think you would have noticed." Talia's voice was dripping with sarcasm, which stung Jared a bit.

Lowering his hat slightly, he shook his head. "I'm just trying to have a nice conversation with you, no need to respond with rude remarks."

Maybe he crossed a line saying that… Or maybe he just needed to keep pushing forward. Either way, Jared was going to have to make a move.

However, unexpectedly, he heard a word from Talia he wasn't expecting to hear. "Sorry…" She wasn't looking at him when she said that.

Quickly, Jared was hit with a tinge of guilt as her words registered. "I-"

Letting out a heavy sigh, Talia shook her head. "I'm just used to replying to anyone who wants to hold a decent conversation with me with rudeness. There are a lot of awful people in the world, so that's normally what I default to."

Looking at her for a few seconds, Jared let out a sigh. "I share that sentimentality as well. But that's why I always make sure I can help out the few good people around."

For a moment, Talia had a small smile, but she quickly made sure to get rid of it. "Yeah, the world needs more people like you, that's for sure." Saying this, she actually felt like she could relax a bit.

Unfortunate, given that Jared had just finished relaxing. Standing up, he tilted his hat down. "We should get moving again. I don't wish to stay on this island any longer than is required."

That smile of hers quickly faded away into a slight annoyed expression as Talia got up. "Yeah, yeah. I get it." Although, it was nice, even if it was only for a few seconds.

Enima and Bella

The two girls had spent the entire day travelling across the island. Despite what Enima would be led to believe about Bella, she didn't seem to need any sort of break. In fact, she had been working nonstop, and seemed to have even more energy than her.

"We should be approaching the coast soon." Bella called out, duking her head under a branch. "This challenge wasn't so bad. It went better than the first time we attempted something like this."

The two of them had briefly seen the yacht earlier in the day, so they had begun to make their way towards it.

"It sure did." To the point that Enima was surprised. Maybe Christopher really was dragging the team down. "Not to mention we didn't have to follow a certain route. We made our own."

Bella nodded her head along. "Exactly!" Soon, she began to see more daylight pouring through. "Oh, we have to be close now." She ran up ahead, leaving Enima behind.

Confessional: Enima

"You know what, I never thought I'd get along with her." Enima was leaning back in the confessional. "She didn't seem like the type of person I'd care to talk to. But she just has this aura." She trailed off, a small smirk forming on her face. "Not to mention she is a little cute, so that helps too." Historia had made it very clear, so it was time for Enima to jump ship to the next girl.

Soon, Bella ran out into the opening, looking around. "This is the place!" She said gleefully, as the yacht Chris had was waiting for them.

Chris, on the other hand, hadn't even realised that the two of them were done with the challenge. In fact, he was on a beach chair, getting himself a tan.

"Um… Chris?" Bella stood over him, nudging his chair with his foot.

Out of shock, he almost fell out of his chair. "H-How are you two already done? That was an entire island trek!"

Enima joined up with the two, shrugging. "Maybe make it a larger island next time."

Quickly, Chris got out of his chair. Given that he wasn't expecting anyone to finish the challenge so quickly, he was at a loss on what to do. "Huh… Well…" His attention turned towards the yacht. "Just enjoy the amenities while you wait for the others."

Hearing those words, Enima turned to look at Bella. "I wonder if they'd let us have massages. Being here for weeks has taken a strain on my back." Not really, but she would never say no to massages.

Given that Bella didn't want to be left out, she was completely on board with the idea. "Yeah! Let's go!"

Watching the two girls run up to the yacht, Chris shook his head, before facing the camera. "We've already gotten two of the Killer Bass, putting them at a huge advantage, as they only need five more people, while the Screaming Gophers still need nine."

Still Lost:

Screaming Gophers: Arianna, Catrina, Eleanor, Jack, Jared, Marisa, Robin, Talia, Xi

Killer Bass: David, Historia, Jeremy, Mindy, Nila,

Jack and Xi

The duo had been walking for some time now, and nothing seemed to change. They were still almost completely lost like normal.

"We should change our direction." Jack crossed his arms, a frown on his face.

However, Xi wasn't just going to let him have his way. "No." He sent a glare over towards the critic. "If we change directions now, we'll go in a circle. Let's keep going in a straight line until we reach the coast."

"I would be fine with that, except for the fact that we haven't encountered the coast yet. It's been hours" And Jack was done listening to Xi.

Every second spent with this man was only making Xi more furious. Seems someone finally found a way to push his buttons. Unfortunately, it wouldn't do Jack any good. "You're free to wander off on your own, if that's what you think is best for you."

"Maybe I will."

Confessional: Jack

"Tsk, who the hell does he think he is? Who is he to think he knows better than me?" Jack glanced off to the side. "Neither of us are well versed in traversing forest, but at least I know when to look out for something when it clearly isn't working." He narrowed his eyes at the camera. "Him? He's the definition of insanity. Always trying the same thing over and over again, no matter what the results are." However, his scowl quickly turned into a smile. "It's just going to make it all the more satisfying when I vote him off if we lose."

Taking his advice, Jack diverged to the left, making his own path. "See you after you finally get to the other coast."

Xi shook his head. "That's what you think." Changing directions now was stupid. They had a clear path, and Jack just wanted to throw it all away? If they lose, he will be the one at fault.

However, something broke him out of his thoughts.

A scream.

Now, he figured it was Jack, and he should probably help. However, Xi was in no hurry to do so. "What's wrong? Already regretting your plan?" As he moved past the trees, he almost found himself walking right off the edge of a cliff he hadn't noticed. "What the hell…?" He mumbled out.

Soon, he found the source of the scream.

Jack was hanging on for dear life on the side. "How was I supposed to know that there would be an edge here?"

Xi shrugged, not really caring about the situation the critic found himself in. "We had a clear path and you wanted to go against it." This is exactly why Xi wanted to stay on his path. And yet Jack was so quick to throw it away.

"Whatever… Asshole." Jack was starting to struggle to keep himself up. He started to feel his fingers slip. "Just… get me up!"

For a second, Xi almost humoured the idea. That is, however, until he took a look off the edge. "That's not that far of a drop." He was 85% sure Jack would survive this fall. "I think I'm going to leave you here."

"W-what?" The pure shock almost caused Jack to slip right off, but willpower kept him hanging. "Get back here you piece of-"

As Xi turned around, he tuned out Jack's voice. "No no… You know what's best, so I'm not going to get in the way of it."

"Xi!" Jack called out, a little more desperate this time. "You-"

Once again, Xi tuned out his voice, finding it best to not focus on such things.

Confessional: Xi

"As if I'd go back to save him. Not after he's already proven to potentially be a threat to my alliance. I know Arianna has him under her palm. I could just try and get Arianna out, so her group runs around like a headless chicken. However, I want to keep her on this show a bit longer." He didn't exactly provide an explanation as to why. "Besides, with me potentially taking out Jack here, I see a good reason why he should be the person voted out in case we lose."

Historia and Nila

Given the sun had begun to go down, the two of them were discussing what they should be doing next.

"We should just stop for the night…" Historia clutched her stomach, growing hungry. "And try to find some food…"

That would set them back, and might cause them to lose the challenge, but Nila couldn't exactly disagree. "Yes… We still have time before the sun vanishes, so we should use this time to figure out resources."

When it came to survival, Nila completely outclasses Historia. "I think I saw some trees with some fruit." But she still wanted to be helpful.

Tapping her chin, Nila went in the direction that Historia pointed out, eager to find something to eat.

Watching her leave, Historia let out a sigh, letting herself slide against the tree she was next to.

Confessional: Historia

"I think I've figured out a rather good life lesson staying here." She seemed to be down again. "On this game show, not specifically this island. The fact that I think I'm completely unprepared for what life has for me."

After a bit, Nila did come back with fruit, but she also came back with… a fish?

"H-huh?" Historia quickly stood up. "Where did you-" This made next to no sense to her, given she was only gone for ten minutes.

Placing the fruit down on a pile of leaves she managed to kick up, Nila looked at her. "You remember that stream we passed by? I saw a fish swimming through, and I was able to grab it."

… "What are you, a bear?"

Nila found that to be an odd comparison, but she only smiled. "I might be! Now, we should start a fire."

That was an issue, given that they didn't have any equipment for that. At least according to Historia.

However, Nila wasn't about to let herself be beaten by nature. Pulling out one of the many things she had found on her search, it appeared to be a dark rock.

Of course, Historia was able to realise just what kind of rock that was. "Is that… Flint?"

Nila nodded her head, hitting it against her knife, attempting to get some sparks off.

After a few attempts, it managed to work, and they soon had a fire.

"Wow…" Historia had been watching the entire time.

Putting her knife away, Nila fed the fire a few leaves to keep it going a bit longer. "That should keep us warm during the night." Glancing over at Historia, she froze up slightly. "Why are you staring so intently?"

Quickly looking at the floor, Historia shook her head. "I just didn't think you'd get the fire started, so I was impressed."

Looking around the area, she frowned. "Even with the fire… It doesn't seem like it would warm us up enough." It felt like tonight would be cold.

"Oh!" Nila took a step towards her. "There is something else we can do instead, if that is not enough for the night."

"And that would be…?" Historia seemed a bit sceptical, but Nila hadn't done anything wrong as of yet.

"Body heat."

For a moment, Historia's expression remained neutral, almost as if to process just what Nila said. Then, her cheeks grew red. "H-huh?"

"Is… something wrong?" Nila tilted her head to the side, confused. "We do not have any sleeping bags or blankets. Sleeping on the ground would also be rather cold. The only thing we have is our own body heat."

"N-No! Nothing's wrong!" And yet Historia quickly felt herself getting dizzy.

Confessional: Historia

"She's just trying to be nice. She's just trying to be nice. She's just trying to be nice-" Static.

David and Jeremy

Cut!

Slash!

Swing!

Bang!

The machete doesn't normally go bang, but Jeremy hit a rock.

"You're going to break that thing if you keep using it recklessly." David shook his head, watching the horrible sight in front of him.

He should know, he's lost knives that way before.

Slowing down, Jeremy turned to look at him. "Maybe, but it's not like it's my machete. If we really need to, we could just use one of your knives."

Letting out a small laugh, David twirled his knife around. "I'd rather not. This one is a prized possession. I've had it for over two years now, so I've grown a very soft spot for it."

The only emotion Jeremy could feel right now is sorrow. "Man… You live such a sad life that the only friend you've made is a knife…"

David gave him a dumbfounded look before pointing the knife at him. "Keep cutting! It's almost night time, and I don't want to be doing this challenge any longer than I have to do it."

In response, Jeremy gave him a fake salute. "On it captain!"

As he continued to slash through the thick leaves, David took notice of the area they were in. It was starting to feel like the forest was thinning out, which meant they might be approaching an opening.

Or, even better, the shore.

"We might be getting closer." David mumbled out as he stepped closer to Jeremy.

"I would hope so." Jeremy responded as he finally cut through enough to let sunlight in. "Ah! Here we go!"

While the sun was getting ready to set, they were still blasted by it directly facing into their eyes.

Blocking his face from the bright light, David looked around before eventually spotting Chris sitting down on the same chair as before. "Hey Chris!" He called out, stepping out of the woods.

"What?" Chris had been surprised by Bella and Enima. Now he was just annoyed that another pair had made it to the end. "Why do you guys keep finishing early?" This was supposed to be a two day challenge. They couldn't keep doing that.

"Wha…?" David raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Who finished before us?"

"Bella and Enima made it here hours ago." Chris stood up from his chair, given that the sun was going to be gone soon. He didn't want to stay out at night.

"..." David gave him a blank look.

Confessional: David

"Yeaaaah… Something has to be done about those two. Especially Bella." His eyes drifted to the side. "I'm not sure when the merge is, but it should be the halfway point, so I'm going to assume final eleven. If that's the case, we are losing five more players. If we win this challenge, that's four opportunities to get rid of the two before the merge." He shrugged it off. "Besides, I'm sure I could easily get the numbers." He did have Historia as an ally for the time being.

"So…" Jeremy hummed out, using the blunt end of the machete to scratch his head. "We can just head inside?"

Chris raised an eyebrow upon hearing that. "Uh, yeah? Why would you stay out here? Nighttime is getting closer." As the sun was slowly getting out of view.

Shaking his head, David moved past him. "Well, I'm going inside. I need to find something."

Confessional: David

"Because of the nature of this challenge, I still haven't found who stole some of my belongings." After thinking for a moment, David tilted his head to the side. "Well, my belongings isn't entirely accurate. But it might as well belong to me now." He shrugged it off.

Still Lost:

Screaming Gophers: Arianna, Catrina, Eleanor, Jack, Jared, Marisa, Robin, Talia, Xi

Killer Bass: Historia, Mindy, Nila,

NIGHTTIME

Catrina and Mindy

The creature blocking their tracks had taken out a lot of time away from their day. By the time it had finally moved, the sun was beginning to set.

Now, the duo found themselves further into the forest, but nowhere closer than they needed to be.

Not to mention…

"God… fucking dammit…" Catrina felt a tinge of frustration as she let her tired body fall to the ground. "It's already nighttime."

However, to contrast her, Mindy took a few more extra steps. "Come on, if we stop now, we won't make it before-" She cut herself off, realising something.

"No… Fuck…" Catrina rolled over so she was at least on her back. "I need to rest… If you want to keep going, go ahead, we aren't on the same team, so"

Confessional: Mindy

"You know, I thought about leaving her there for the night, but then I would be failing at the one thing I told Nila I'd do." Letting out a heavy sigh, Mindy leaned back in the confessional. "So I made the express decision to stay with her for the night."

Plopping down onto the ground next to her, Mindy watched the stars.

Not that Catrina hated the company or anything, but she had her own questions. "Why are you still here?"

"Well, I can't leave you alone in the woods." Did Mindy really need any other reason?

Of course, Catrina wasn't a trusting person.

Especially not to someone from the other team who has caused damage to her.

Frowning slightly, Catrina shook her head. "What do you really want?"

Mindy didn't want to admit to the reason, because she felt it would be less genuine if Catrina knew. However, given that the two wouldn't get anywhere like this.

"I haven't apologised for what happened back then…" Mindy kept her eyes fixated on the stars above.

Confessional: Catrina

"Alright, now I know she's making up some form of bullshit." Catrina crossed her arms, looking away. "No way she's actually here to apologise."

Catrina had a look in her eyes that almost made her want to scream BULLSHIT, but something prevented her from doing that. "Oh, is that so?"

Letting out a small sigh, Mindy shook her head. "I know you won't believe me, but after our rematch, I've been feeling bad. Especially since you almost drowned."

Hearing that, Catrina turned her own attention towards the stars. "Well… Maybe you should have thought twice before you tried to sabotage."

"Look… I've heard enough of that from Nila…" Mindy wasn't about to let this go nowhere. "I was just getting tired of sending people home all the time, and I acted irrationally."

Acted… Catrina let out a small sigh, nodding her head along. "Yeah, I guess I did too. All I had to do was win the race, but my ego had gotten the best of me, so I threw the win away." Lifting her hand up to reach towards the moon, she couldn't help but frown.

She already went through the motions before… Why did she have to think of all that again? Turning to look at Mindy, Catrina frowned. "But it's whatever. I'm not mad or anything like that."

Delivering her best "yeah right" face, Mindy shook her head. "I don't believe that for a second."\

"Whatever…" Not like Catrina needed her to believe what she said. "You owe me a phone at the end of this."

"Didn't you get the warranty on it?" Mindy raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Catrina narrowed her eyes, almost in disbelief. "Aren't those things just a scam?"

"Bruh…" Words couldn't begin to describe the thoughts going through Mindy's mind. She really was an idiot.

Jared and Talia

To call what they had shelter was definitely… An overstatement.

While Jared fared well in the first camping episode, things were much different this time. They didn't have the equipment to handle this.

They did, however, have a fire, thanks to Jared.

However, the duo hadn't gone to sleep yet, despite how late it had gotten. It had to be close to midnight.

Letting out a small sigh, Jared turned to look at Talia. "You really should go to bed."

However, Talia had other ideas. "Only if you go to bed. It's late, you should get some rest too."

He would have loved to, but out here, Jared couldn't be sure what could happen. "Someone has to keep watch."

"What good will you be if I have to drag you around tomorrow?" Talia frowned, crossing her arms. "If you're that certain that one of us should keep watch, let's take shifts. We'd need to sleep longer, but at least we'd both get sleep."

However, that idea didn't sound great to Jared. Slowly, he shook his head. "Fine. I too shall get some sleep. I'd rather not have to stay here longer than we need." Besides, he knew Talia and himself could get up pretty early. They weren't being shackled by the entire team. "Six hours-"

"Eight." Talia wasn't going to budge on that. "If we sleep too little, we risk running around in darkness anyways."

He had to hand it to her, she was entirely right. Nighttime had just broken, and it was unlikely that it would be gone in six hours. "... Fine." Jared glanced the other way, frowning slightly. "Eight hours, we both sleep. Lightly."

Talia had no issues with the light part. "There we go."

Confessional: Talia

"Jared has to stop pushing himself so much like that." She had a small frown on her face. "He always tries to sacrifice his own comfort for others. Someone's going to end up taking advantage of that." Long pause before she realised that would look bad for her. "I'm not one of those people, by the way."

As the two settled to sleep, the night grew quiet.

Not because the two of them were sleeping, however.

The duo was still very much up.

Jared pretended to sleep, looking away from Talia. He didn't bother opening his eyes, and instead, tried to rely solely on sound. He knew exactly what she would be trying to do. She'd stay up until she was certain he was asleep.

So, Jared had to make sure he stayed pretty still, and that he didn't open his eyes for anything.

Almost like a book, she was read. Knowing Jared, Talia figured he'd try to stay up anyways. She made sure she was facing him, that was she could keep an eye on him.

But as she watched on and on… Jared didn't really seem to move around like he was keeping a watch.

Had he actually gone to sleep? Checking on him now would only wake him up if that were the case.

Which meant the only thing Talia could do right now was sleep herself…

Arianna and Marisa

Lost.

Lost with no perception of time.

All the duo knew was that it was nighttime, and they should probably rest for the night.

"This is the worst…" Arianna groaned as she slowly sat down on the floor. "Why couldn't Chris offer us some tents?"

"Because that would be considerate of him." Marisa had positioned herself next to a tree, resting against it. "Can't have that from Chris."

This got a small laugh from Arianna. "Yeah, exactly. Wouldn't want to accommodate us. He's probably still on his damn yacht." She knew she should keep her nice persona going, but the thought of Chris just filled her with rage.

Plopping herself onto the ground, Marisa adjusted her position so she was comfortable. "I'm sure there's a bunch of other challenges that he could have done that didn't involve abandoning us on an island." They didn't even have a map compared to last time. Knowing them, they had just gotten completely lost.

"That would involve him having to be creative…" Arianna leaned her head back. She was tired, hungry. And several other things.

Letting out a small laugh, Marisa shook her head. She kind of wanted Arianna to show off this side more often, given she could be pretty funny when it came to ranting about Chris. "I'm not much of a survivalist, so I don't know exactly how we're going to get through the night."

Nor was Arianna, evidenced by her loud sigh. "We could just try to find food, and pray nothing finds us at night."

Marisa would have suggested splitting up, but they probably both needed to work on the same task. "It's either we worry about food, or shelter."

Technically speaking, you'd need shelter faster than food, depending on circumstances.

A tough battle for Arianna, given she loved comfort. But how much comfort could one get in a forest like this? "Ugh… Maybe we shouldn't waste the energy doing anything."

"What do you mean?" Marisa was a bit confused, given that they had to do something.

Closing one eye, Arianna frowned slightly. "This is a challenge, so we should probably be quick, right? If we waste time setting up any shelter, we'd just be one of the last people to make it to the finish."

That… Made sense. Marisa shook her head. "I get what you mean, I just didn't take you for the type of person to think like that."

Still, they had to do something. "Let's at least try and clear the floor where we are staying."

At the very least, that shouldn't waste too much of their time, so Arianna was fine with that. She was going to do it anyway, no matter what Marisa said. "This is probably going to be the best area we'll find."

If Jack was with them, he'd probably be far more pickier than she would be, but she also knew what she was signing up for with this show.

Kneeling down to clear some of the twigs, Arianna wanted to at least make sure she wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night due to discomfort. "Ugh… Really starting to wish we had tents at the very least."

"This makes the second challenge look like a breeze in comparison." Marisa had pretty much already cleared her area, so now she was lying down to see how comfortable it was. "How hot do you think it's going to get tonight?"

"I doubt it will get cold." It was an island, after all. None of the nights they had spent so far had been cold. Not to mention it was a much smaller island. "As much as it pains me to not have anything covering us, I think we'll have to manage."

Confessional: Arianna

"This entire thing is bullshit. Especially since I have to keep up a facade the entire time." Honestly, Arianna just wanted to scream at the entire thing, but with Marisa there, it made it impossible to do so. "At least with Jack, I doubt he would care about me complaining, and would have likely joined me." Not that he would be any help in actually getting out of here alive.

Once both girls had cleared out the area they'd be sleeping, they were both lying down.

"..." Arianna would have loved to at least be looking up at the stars, but the trees blocked out any view she would have had. "Do you think you'll be able to sleep tonight?"

"... Eventually." Marisa wasn't sure. Part of her was worried about animals appearing out of anywhere. Then again, from the looks around, it didn't seem like any animal lived in this area. "The only thing we can really do is pray, I guess."

Ugh… Praying. "Yeah, yeah…" Arianna closed her eyes, knowing damn well that wouldn't do anything to help. "If I sleep in, wake me up…"

However, both girls knew that they likely wouldn't get any sleep tonight, especially with the slight fear that they could be disturbed at any moment.

And yet, the night continued on…

Eleanor and Robin

Running.

Robin had plans to spend the night sleeping. He didn't want to over exert himself for a challenge such as this. Especially when he wasn't in any immediate danger of being voted out.

The only problem was that Robin was in immediate danger of being eaten alive by the wildlife. "So." Despite the urgency of the situation as loud footsteps could be heard behind the duo, Robin turned to look at Eleanor. "What kind of animal is that?"

"Huh!?" Eleanor was just as confused as Robin was. "How would…? How would I know?" She turned to look at the pair of eyes that was closing the gap between the two of them. "I know plants, not animals."

"Damn… Outclassed by Bella…" Robin shook his head as he began running down a hill. "The only hope for us now is to reach the shore and hope it can't swim."

That didn't mean they were completely out of hope yet. Turning to look at her again, Robin spoke up. "How do you normally deal with animals where you are from?"

"You mean the pests? The worst we get are coyotes, and my father just shoots them if they get too close." Eleanor was able to keep up with Robin the entire time. Whether out of fear, or because she was a good runner was unknown.

Confessional: Robin

"Now, normally I wouldn't say I'm a scared individual." He said this while having the calmest expression on his face. "However, the fear of the unknown is a very real fear. That's why, if anything goes wrong, I am willing to sacrifice Eleanor for the furtherment of my own existence."

As the two continued to run in the darkness, another presence made itself known.

As Eleanor continued to run, she glanced up, and noticed that there was a large bird flying over them. "I… What even lives on this island?"

"Hold on, I have a book for this." Robin pulled out one of his many books, and began to read it. "Oh, wow, I see!" He closed the book. "It's too dark." He tossed the book behind him.

"Robin!" Eleanor cried out as she grew more panicked. "Now's not the time for your jokes."

That was a bit disappointing, but she wasn't wrong. "Alright, alright. I'll only joke around at appropriate times."

A scream caught Robin off guard. When he looked over to where Eleanor was, she was no longer there. Fortunately, another scream alerted him of her whereabouts. "Robin!" She called out from above.

Whatever bird was flying above them had swooped down to grab her.

"Right, right." He might as well help. As Robin continued to run, he picked up a good throwing rock. Taking aim, he chucked it towards them!

Bullseye!

If he was aiming for Eleanor.

"Ow!" She covered her forehead. "Not meee." She seemed ready to cry.

"I might be named after a bird, but I'm not a bird." Robin shook his head as he looked around, searching

However, as he kept running, Robin would notice that he lost track of Eleanor after going under a tree. "Hmm?" Stopping in his steps, he moved back over towards the tree. Glancing up, he could see a rather large nest. "Are you…"

He wasn't exactly adept at climbing trees, so this would be new territory for him.

Of course, Robin wasn't just going to give up like that. "How hard… can it be." He had seen other people do it, so he began to mimic their style.

Honestly! That got him pretty far! Until he could start standing on the thicker branches to catch his breath. "The things I do for…"

Confessional: Robin

"If I just abandon her, I'm one step closer to the money." Robin nodded his head along to his genius idea.

Following his own insight, he did just tha- Wait no! Robin! You're still climbing! You idiot! Think of the money!

Finally, he reached the highest branch of the tree, where the bird resided.

Now that Robin could make out its features clearly, it began all too obvious just what kind of bird it was. "Nope. Still don't know birds." Thank you Robin.

The bird seemed to be guarding Eleanor, who was trying her best not to move. "U-um…" However, she still spoke. "W-What do we do… We never had to deal with birds of prey before…"

Good question! "Alright, I'm going to push the nest off the branch, and I want you to make an amazing landing."

"R-Robin!" Eleanor blurted out, panic visible on her face. "That'd kill me!"

Ah right, bummer. Turning back towards the tree itself, Robin began to trace his finger on it. "We'll figure something out, I'm sure."

But first, they weren't going to get another opportunity for this. Given that they were pretty high up, now was the perfect time for Robin to take a look around the area, seeing if he could spot where their destination was.

And spot it he did. Robin took notice of some lights coming from not too far. "Ah." He could tell right away it was the yacht. "Eleanor." He turned to look back at her. "Do you trust me with your life?"

That was a bit unexpected, but even after everything he did to her, Eleanor felt inclined to agree. "Y-Yes! As long as it seems reasonable."

"Alright, that makes one of us." Robin's smart. He knows not to trust Robin.

Taking another look below them, he noted all the branches on the way down. "Got it." He nodded to himself before beginning to kick the branch that Eleanor was on, in an attempt to break it.

"R-Robin?" Reasonably, she began to panic. "What are you doing-" Several kicks were enough to break the branch off, causing Eleanor and the nest to fly down.

"Oh." Robin looked down, seeing the eggs in the nest as it fell down. "That's depressing." However, a second later, he was back to not caring. "I'll be down in a second!"

He was ready to slide down the tree before a very familiar sound caught his attention.

The bird.

Staring right at him.

"Hello to you, ma'am. I'm very sorry for the trauma you must be going through." Robin had to reach very far to find an ounce of compassion. "But I have other matters to attend to." Giving it a quick salute, Robin allowed himself to fall down several of the branches, cutting up his cloak as he descended.

As soon as he made it to the bottom, Robin had but a single second to recover before he was knocked onto the ground.
"W-what were you thinking?" Eleanor had pushed him onto the ground.

Quickly getting up, and dusting himself off, Robin gave a sheepish shrug before running off further into the forest. He needed no explanation.

"R-Robin!" Eleanor blurted out before running after him.

She had quickly lost sight of him in the dark forest, which left her with the only solution of running forward. Especially with the sound of the same bird chasing after them.

Confessional: Eleanor

"I'm normally very good with animals… But whatever that bird is…" She held onto her arm. "I don't know why Robin felt the need to do that, but one of us could have seriously gotten hurt." That someone was Robin, apparently.

Now that they were approaching closer and closer to the edge of the island, Robin turned to look at Eleanor. "We're almost there. All we have to do is make it to the yacht before the bird gets us."

Swooping down to get them, the bird missed.

Eleanor put her hands over her head, in an attempt to protect herself. "But we're still so far away."

"Hmm… You see, I didn't consider that as an issue." Robin actually did, he just quickly discarded it because he didn't care.

However, the shore was within sight, and with it, the yacht.

Unfortunately, Robin might have underestimated just how far the yacht still was.

Confessional: Robin

"Look. I might be smart, but there's only so much I can do when it comes to measuring distance from the top of a tree. If I had a ruler, maybe I could have made some leeway."

As the bird swooped down, Robin was forced to think quickly, and shove Eleanor out of the way. She had brighter colours, so it was clearly going for her.

He was proven correct when the bird barely missed her, and instead latched onto him. "Ah, beans." Was the only words he let himself release as he was lifted into the air.

"Robin!" Eleanor called out in a panic, looking up at him. "Um!" Well, she wasn't the brightest, so she wouldn't be able to think of a good solution.

Fortunately, Robin was a genius, so he had a bright idea. Being about twenty feet in the air, he shouted down to her. "Eleanor, I need you to catch me." Nevermind, he's fucking stupid.

"W-what!?" Alright, Eleanor expected so much better from him than this. This felt like something she would have thought of, and then discarded due to the sheer stupidity of it.

Not giving her any time to think, Robin quickly removed his cloak, allowing his body to slip out of it while the bird continued to fly off.

"AH!" Eleanor began to panic, but she did as Robin said, attempting to catch him.

She did!

But the momentum still brought them both down, but it did save Robin from a life threatening injury.

"So you are useful." Robin slowly got up, dusting off his arms.

"Ugh…" Eleanor just wanted the night to be over.

Glancing up to the sky, she noticed that the bird hadn't realised the trick that was played on it. "Let's get back to the yacht.

As the duo quickly arrived, Chris was waiting at the entrance. "Finally, some more people from the Screaming Gophers. I thought the Killer Bass was going to knock you out of the park."

"Probably." Robin didn't seem to care either way. They were due for a loss anytime soon, after all.

Confessional: Robin

"If you think about it, they only have seven people to worry about, while we have nine. They have to do less work than us, so they'll likely be the winner of this challenge, unless something terrible happens to one of their members."

Still Lost:

Screaming Gophers: Arianna, Catrina, Jack, Jared, Marisa, Talia, Xi

Killer Bass: Historia, Mindy, Nila

DAYTIME

Jared and Talia

As soon as sunlight hit their camp, both Jared and Talia were ready to go. Jared made sure he took the time to stop the fire, but he was clearly tired.

"I thought I told you to sleep." Talia stood over him, frowning slightly. She had stayed up a bit just to make sure he was actually sleeping.

Was he faking that?

"I know, I know… But." Jared just couldn't sleep knowing that they could be found by an animal. "I apologise, but that isn't our concern at the moment. Getting off this island is."

Talia couldn't exactly argue with him about that. "Fine…" But still, he should take better care of himself. "How close do you think we are?"

Once Jared made sure the fire was taken care of, he stood up, looking towards the direction they had been heading in yesterday. "I'm not entirely sure, but we've done a fair bit of travelling." He brought a hand to his chin to think. "If we discount the fact that we were momentarily distracted by the bear, I say we should still be one of the earliest people there."

Especially since some of the people didn't seem like they knew anything about survival. However, there is a chance that Talia and him just got unlucky and everyone else managed to stay grouped together.

"Are you ready to go?" Jared was about ready to take off.

Stretching a bit, Talia turned to face him. "Yeah, let's go."

While it was early, the two had to break out in a sprint just to hope that they hadn't dragged behind too much.

Given that she actually got a full night's sleep, Talia wasn't having much problems, but she could see that Jared was lagging behind a bit. "See what I mean?" A frown appeared on her face.

Jared shook his head, looking for any excuse he could come up with. "I don't want to expend all my energy. Especially if we don't know how far the shore is."

Rolling her eyes, Talia began to look back the way she was running. "Excuses, excuses." Not like she didn't warn him.

"T-They aren't excuses!" Jared quickly tried to defend himself, but any attempt to do so was futile, given the expression on Talia's face.

"Be honest…"

Looking at her gaze a bit longer was enough to get Jared to break a bit. "A-Alright. I'm still tired."

Confessional: Jared

"I was so worried about something bad happening last night that I couldn't catch a wink of sleep." He had his arms crossed, and a frown on his face. "I thought I'd be fine, but it's taking me out far more than I would have thought."

It was time that Talia put her foot down.

Even if it did cost them the challenge a bit, nothing was going to change if she didn't say anything.

Stopping in her tracks, she turned to look at Jared. "Jared." She said softly, but there was a certain air of authority to her voice. "This has to stop now."

Like she did, Jared also stopped running. "What… What do you mean?"

Letting out a small sigh, Talia shook her head. "You always push yourself further than you need to for the sake of others. And while I'm sure some people appreciate the gesture, not everyone is alright with you sacrificing so much just to get things done."

For a few seconds, Jared remained silent. He couldn't exactly counter her points. He had always gone out of his way to help out others as much as he could. Tilting his hat down, he frowned. "You might say that, but it doesn't mean I'm going to stop."

Talia figured as much, but that wasn't her goal. She did like the noble person Jared was, but she was allowed to be worried about his own health. "Take a moment to rest, please."

"But if we do, we risk losing-"

Jared wasn't able to finish his sentence, before Talia dragged him down onto a log to sit down. "Just. Rest."

No, he can't just…

Confessional: Jared

"Maybe she's right…" He tipped his hat down. "I should just go and get myself a few minutes of sleep." If not, then he would collapse on the way to the finish line.

Letting himself slowly fall asleep, Talia watched him the entire time. For once, her stern expression slowly softened up again. "You idiot…" She fixed his hat, which threatened to fall off his head.

…

…

…

After letting an extra half hour pass by, Talia finally shook him awake, and Jared woke up a little groggy.

Once his senses were back, he slowly turned to look over at Talia. "How long… Have I been out?"

Now, Talia could have told him the truth, but a part of her did want to see his reaction. "Five hours."

Quickly standing up, Jared was ready to run a full sprint. "We've wasted enough time-"

Fortunately, Talia was able to stop him. "It was only half an hour." She hadn't expected him to jump into action so quickly.

Letting the words sink in, Jared crossed his arms with a frown. "Why the lie…?"

"You take things too seriously." Talia reasoned as she made her way down the path with him.

Thinking for a moment, Jared was able to easily counter back. "Aren't you normally more serious than I am?"

"True." Didn't mean she always had to be. "Let's not worry about that right now."

She had a point, Jared wasn't going to deny that. They had other things to worry about.

As the two began to run, Talia was the first to pick up on something. "It smells like the beach. We're almost there."

Well, Jared couldn't smell anything, but Talia also worked in a kitchen, so maybe she had better skills.

Just like Talia had said, they arrived at the shore, taking a huge breath of fresh beach air. "There…" Now Talia was starting to feel exhausted. Maybe she should have taken a small nap like Jared did earlier.

Taking a glance over at him, Talia noticed that he had completely fallen to the ground. "Jared?" She tried shaking him awake.

Groaning slightly, Jared slowly got to his feet. "The lack of energy is beginning to take a toll on me…"

Letting him lean on her, Talia began to take some small steps forward. "Alright, let's get you some rest…"

Still Lost:

Screaming Gophers: Arianna, Catrina, Jack, Marisa, Xi

Killer Bass: Historia, Mindy, Nila

Historia and Nila

"Wake up! Wake up!"

A voice called out to Historia, who was doing anything but waking up.

Then, there was a pause.

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" This time, it was more violent.

There was no sleeping through that.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Historia quickly sat up straight, looking around in a daze.

"Oh! There we go!" Nila offered her a sweet smile. "You were not waking up, so I tried shaking you awake."

Still looking dazed, Historia kept staring her down. "I hate you…"

Nila didn't seem to mind as she lifted Historia onto her feet. "It is morning, which means we should start running."

"Run- HUH?" Clearly, too much was being asked of Historia here. "No… I just… I haven't even had anything to eat yet-"

"Apple?" Nila had it ready just for this.

"I…" Historia was at a loss of words. "But-" So many points could be argued here. And yet she still grabbed the apple without putting any thought into it.

Unfortunately for her, Nila didn't have time for that. Grabbing her arm, she ran off.

"Wait wait wait!" Historia tried to break her arm free, but the grip was too tight. When that failed, she was forced to try and run on her feet, which also failed, given the speed that Nila was running at. "H-hey!"

Finally getting the memo, Nila slowed down enough so that Historia could actually stand on her feet. "O-Oh!"

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Historia shook her head. "There's no point in running like that if I don't have the chance to gain my bearings." She had just woken up, and she wasn't ready for this level of commitment. "If you're going to run that much, at least carry me-"

"OK!" Nila picked her up with ease. "Is this better?"

"..." If looks could kill, Historia would have murdered Nila. "Fine…" She looked the other way.

Smiling brightly, Nila ran off. She was a bit slower now, given the extra weight, but she was still pretty fast all things considered. "We woke up early, so we should be one of the first groups to have arrived." She wasn't sure how early, but she could make some guesses.

"You're just saying that so it doesn't make it obvious I held you back…" Historia mumbled out, resting her head on Nila's shoulder.

"Well!" Caught red handed. "I do admit that we have taken a lot of time. The island did not seem that large, and we might have run into the wrong direction a bit. But I am confident we will not be the last people to arrive."

"If… You say so…" Despite their morning fueled with so much moving, Historia felt herself starting to doze off again.

She'd just let Nila do all the work now…

Finally, as they broke through the treeline, and onto the shore, Nila couldn't help but seem excited. "Look! Look! We made it!"

Turning to look over at Historia, she was already sleeping again.

"Oh!" Well, Nila didn't mind in the slightest. As long as the two of them made it, things would be fine. "I will let you sleep."

When the duo finally approached Chris, he raised his sunglasses. "You know, Nila. I thought you'd be one of the first people to finish this challenge. Instead, you were one of the last ones."

That was a hit to her confidence, but she didn't mind it too much. "If I was alone, maybe so. However, I had a partner I could not leave behind."

Ugh. Noble bullshit like this? Chris grimaced a bit, before shaking his head.

Humming to herself, Nila carried Historia over to the yacht.

Still Lost:

Screaming Gophers: Arianna, Catrina, Jack, Marisa, Xi

Killer Bass: Mindy

Xi

Times had been hard for Xi, given he lost his partner in a tragic camping accident. Who could really blame him for being miserable as he stepped down the path he noticed several other people had already.

Stomped leaves, muddy tracks, and snapped twigs.

Didn't seem like an animal.

Especially with faint sunlight peeking out from the leaves.

With only a few extra steps, Xi stepped out onto shore, blocking the sunlight from his eyes.

At this point, he wasn't sure if the challenge was over or not. The yacht still being there was a good sign, however. "Chris."

Once he got closer, the host lowered his glasses. "Oh! Xi!" There was a bit of a pause. "You know, most people came back in pairs."

Crossing his arms, Xi shook his head. "Those more fortunate than myself, I presume." Glancing off over to the water, he hummed out. "Is the challenge still going on?"

"Yup! The Killer Bass is only missing Mindy, but she has yet to appear, so the challenge isn't over yet."

"And how many are left from my team?" He wanted to know if he had a good placement, or if he was going to be screwed in case they lost.

"Still missing four from your team."

"W-"

Confessional: Xi

"Four…? I could understand Jack at the very least, but three other people?" Xi shook his head, a grimace on his face. "These people might never find the shore even if there weren't any trees on this island."

Still Lost:

Screaming Gophers: Arianna, Catrina, Jack, Marisa

Killer Bass: Mindy

Arianna and Marisa

While the two of them were still God awful with directions, Marisa had taken the time they spent not moving to get a better idea of the surroundings.

"So, given that the sun rose-"

She had been mid-explaining when Arianna felt compelled to stop her. "Wait, why did you wait until now to do this?"

"Huh…" Marisa had no excuse. She just was too panicked to think properly earlier. "Well, according to my notes, we need to go that way!" Pointing off slightly to the side of where they were actually going, she was hoping to distract Arianna.

Of course, that wasn't going to work under the surface. They could have been done with this challenge yesterday if either had thought of that sooner.

However, Arianna was going to pretend on the surface. "Oh? You found the way forward? Then what are we waiting for?" She put a fake smile on.

Being mean to Marisa now wouldn't benefit her game.

Confessional: Arianna

"I know I can't be mad at her too much. I should have thought of something like that too." Arianna crossed her arms, a bit frustrated. "The only difference is that I'm bad with directions." Thinking back, there was someone else who was also pretty bad with stuff like that. "Hopefully Jack doesn't get lost on this island."

"Now…" Marisa continued as the two ran through some trees. "I'm not exactly sure how far we have to travel." They weren't exactly going in the right direction in the first place, so there's a chance they had a full day ahead of them.

"I'm going to stop you right there." Arianna glanced at her. "Wouldn't it be better if we don't know? I don't want all of our motivation to be drained because she realised we're on the opposite side of the island.

Looking at her for a few seconds, Marisa eventually nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right." They would just need to pray that they were close.

However, having spent over an entire day travelling was starting to get to both girls.

"God…" Arianna complained, glancing down at her legs. "This terrain is annoying."

"You tell me…" Marisa wasn't one to wander random forests.

And while they did have a challenge similar to this already, at least that forest had better terrain. Boney Island… Was not it…

After a bit more running! They did it! They reached the shore!

"Marisa." Arianna said rather calmly, looking over at her. "Where's the yacht?"

However, Marisa didn't seem too dissuaded from the matter. "Alright, now we've made it to shore, which meant we were stuck on the Northern part of the island." Looking up at the sun again, she made a mental map.

Seeing what she was doing, Arianna was able to pick up. "So just follow here?"

"Yeah!" Marisa had picked up the pace. Now that she knew the direction they were going in was good, there was no reason to doubt their movement.

Following the shore, they were eventually able to make it to where the yacht was.

It took an extra half hour, but huh… They did it.

To them, it was less about time, and more so about actually finding their way.

Several people could be seen on the yacht already, with Chris relaxing on the beach like normal.

As the two girls approached him, they stopped to catch their breath.

"Chris." Arianna said rather softly, hiding the actual tone of her voice perfectly. "If you ever think of sending us into another forest again, it won't end well for you."

Almost as if ignoring her completely, Chris waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. The challenge is almost over, so go inside with everyone else."

Twitching her eye slightly, Arianna took a deep breath.

She wouldn't yell at him. At least not now. "If you say so." She hummed out, moving over towards the yacht where Marisa was waiting.

"What was that about?" She tilted her head to the side.

Looking back over at Chris, Arianna shrugged. "I was just telling him to get a bit more creative with his challenges. The forest one is a bit overdone, after all."

Letting out a small laugh, Marisa couldn't help but agree. "Yeah, some of the other challenges were at least marginally fun. Let's get inside. We were one of the last teams, so we probably won't have much time to enjoy ourselves on this yacht."

Who was Arianna to turn down a time like that?

Not like they'd be able to use it much, given how little people were still missing, but it would be best to make the most of it.

Still Lost:

Screaming Gophers: Catrina, Jack

Killer Bass: Mindy

Catrina and Mindy

Despite the urgency all the other teams had, Catrina and Mindy had other plans. Plans that involved walking.

Yeah that's why they hadn't finished yet.

"Are we almost there yet?" Catrina was starting to grow more tired. They got lucky and had a good night's sleep, but she just wanted out of this entire situation.

Letting out a small sigh, Mindy shook her head. "Look, I don't know. All I know is that-"

CRUNCH!

The duo froze in their tracks, almost out of fear.

"What was-" Catrina began to say before Mindy covered her mouth.

"Shh…" She warned, kneeling down again.

Not again…

Taking a peek over the nearest bush, they encountered that same animal. The same boar.

"Fuck…" Catrina mumbled out, shaking her head. "It's always something here." She pressed both sides of her headphones against her head, hoping to calm her nerves.

It wasn't working.

Looking off into the distance, the problem was that Mindy knew where they needed to go. She had scouted ahead at night, but didn't want to leave Catrina behind after apologising. "We just… Need to make a run for it as soon as we get the chance."

"But where are we even going?" Catrina let out a sigh, lowering herself in the bushes so she didn't have to look at the boar anymore.

That part of the plan wasn't well thought out, admittedly. "Huh… Well…" Mindy glanced around, hoping to find any semblance of an idea in her head. "Maybe wherever it doesn't follow us?"

"What a genius plan." Catrina said with a bright smile dripping with sarcasm. "What if it's going in the wrong direction."

"Oh, I don't know!" Mindy was beginning to get a little frustrated. "Why don't you think of a better idea?"

Thinking for a moment, Catrina had an idea in her head. "What if we run in the direction it doesn't follow us-"

"I'm going to-" Mindy was beginning to threaten her, but movement outside the bush alerted her to be quiet.

Peering outside the bush, the duo was able to see that the boar had its back turned towards them. Which meant that they could escape now if they really wanted to.

While waiting around was fine for Mindy, it was starting to get rather boring for Catrina. "Fuck this." Turning away from the boar, she got ready to run.

"H-Hey!" Mindy didn't want their cover to be blown, so she tried her best to stop her. "What- What are you even thinking of doing?"

"If we stay here, we'll lose the challenge." Girls, you aren't even on the same team.

Taking a deep breath, Catrina began to run.

This noise alerted the boar, which forced Mindy's hands. "Oh you son of a b-" She didn't get time to finish her sentence, as instead, she was forced to run out behind Catrina. "I swear if this is how we die!"

Catrina couldn't help but let out a laugh at everything that was happening. "I'm sure we'll be fine! No need to panic. It's not like we're going to die!"

Confessional: Catrina

"Yeah, I thought I was going to die."

As the two continued to run, more and more they began to lose the boar, either because they were faster, or because it lost interes-

Pfft! They weren't faster than a fucking boar.

The boar lost interest, leaving the two girls to run further into the forest without realising that they were alone again.

"Please…" Mindy begged as she continued to run. Normally she would be full of energy, but something seemed to be off.

Confessional: Mindy

"Alright, I feel like I should at least admit this to explain why my performance was a little off today. I was up… Way later than I should have been last night. I was kind of awake the entire time that Chris was moving everyone to the yacht. It was the only time that… Some people weren't around, so I felt like it would be the perfect opportunity." She clapped her hands together, as if to justify her actions. "So… I'm really out of it, energy wise. And I barely got any sleep while on the island, so that didn't really help out…"

Each step consumed more energy than the duo even had left. If adrenaline wasn't currently keeping them going, they'd both almost surely collapse due to exhaustion.

And yet, the fear kept them in line as the sun became more apparent.

"I think…" Catrina was having a hard time speaking. "We have to almost be there…"

"Thank… Fuck…" Mindy was getting tired of this entire challenge, so any semblance of an end would be something she took.

Finally, the duo moved out onto the shore, having exhausted all their energy.

"God… dammit…" Catrina mumbled out, falling to her knees. "Fucking… boars…"

"And we have a winner!" Chris declared, as soon as Mindy stepped into the clearing.

"H-huh?" Mindy began to panic slightly, given she had somewhat helped Catrina even get to this point. "Don't tell me…"

"The winners… are the Killer Bass!"

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Mindy shook her head. "Oh thank god…"

"What the hell are you even doing?" Talia walked over to Catrina, looking down at her. "Did you just lead her to the end?"

"Oh, fuck off." Catrina didn't want to deal with this right now. "I wasn't just going to abandon her in the woods to die. At least some of us have integrity." Coming from the girl who jumped into Mindy's boat only weeks ago to attack her.

At that, Talia didn't say anything, only turning to look the other way.

Upper Deck

Now that the challenge was over, the rest of the day was spent travelling back to Wawanakwa Island.

Which meant both teams could actually enjoy the cruise a little before things went back to normal.

Well, the Screaming Gophers couldn't enjoy it as much, given that they had to figure out who to vote off.

"Hmm…" Which was exactly why Arianna found herself leaving the bottom of the yacht early. Was now even the time to make a move? They'd have five votes against Xi, right? It would eliminate one of her allies, but that might be for the best, since she didn't trust him in the slightest.

"Why'd you leave so early?" A voice called out. Arianna would have expected it to be Xi, given his usual track record. But instead, it was the voice of a girl.

Turning to see who it was, it was Marisa.

"..." For a moment, Arianan didn't answer, turning to look back at the ocean, after a deep breath, she finally responded. "Just thinking of what to do for the vote."

"The vote seems pretty easy, no?" Marisa hummed out. "From the looks of it, it will be done to either Jack or Xi."

Both for obvious reasons. One is Xi, and the other person lost them the challenge.

Confessional: Marisa

"I already know what my choice will be." She was scribbling in her notebook. "However, the person who's going home will be decided entirely on if people want to make a game move, or just want to vote for who lost them the challenge."

Well, that did seem to be the obvious choices.

However, Arianna realised something as that was brought up. "Hey, speaking of Jack… Have you seen him?"

"I have not." Marisa hummed out in thought. "But I assume he's just enjoying himself down below. Chris wouldn't be stupid enough to leave the island without him. That's probably a lawsuit at minimum."

Marisa had a point, and yet Arianna still felt herself worrying a bit. "Alright, if you say so." Looking back over at the ocean, she couldn't help but sigh.

Was Xi finally going to be going home? Or was some bullshit about to happen?

Either way, all Arianna could really do was believe it was his time.

Campfire Ceremony

The eight campers soon gathered their way to the campfire ceremony. A place that they had only been at two other times.

They had a rather good track record. Episode nine, and it was only their third time here. Granted this was only the seventh ceremony, but still.

When everyone sat down, Arianna was the first to speak up. "Wait, Chris. Where is Jack?"

The host lifted a finger to his lips, demanding everyone's silence. "That's not important right now." On his plate, there were eight marshmallows. "Tonight, you have lost again. This is the first time your team has lost twice in a row. Must be a new feeling to this."

Robin shrugged, not really caring. "It was bound to happen eventually. The other team had the chance to eliminate all their deadweight."

Talia rolled her eyes. "Historia is still on their team, so it isn't entirely true."

Catrina placed her hands on her hips. "They were clearly just better at us at traversing unknown territory."

Chris raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? And last time you had a challenge where you needed to trek through the woods, your team managed to pull out a win."

Jared had his arms crossed. "That's because their strength doesn't lie in teamwork." Right… It was never their strong suit. "Any time they were forced to work together as a team, they fell flat. However, when it came to their individual talents, they always seemed to pull through."

Confessional: Jared

He tipped his hat down, realising what was going to happen. "That means as soon as the merge happens, the Killer Bass might end up as the biggest threat."

Good explanation! Unfortunately Chris wasn't going to give him any credit where it was due.

The host reached over for his plate of marshmallows. "When I call your name, you are safe…"

Still, this didn't settle right with the popular girl. "No, seriously. We should wait for him." She hadn't seen him on the boat… so… Had he gone down to rest after the challenge?

Coughing a few times, the host shook his head. "The first marshmallow goes to…" He tossed the first one. "Robin."

He caught it without any problem. "You know, I almost forgot what this was like." He tossed it into his mouth.

Reaching over for the next one, Chris looked at the other campers. "The next one goes to…" Oh! Who could it be! Who could it be! "Arianna."

She caught it, but she couldn't help but look around nervously. Something wasn't up.

"Next up… Eleanor… Talia…" He tossed two to the ladies.

Both girls caught theirs, with Eleanor sending a bright smile Talia's way.

That left Chris with only four marshmallows left. "Hmm… Marisa… Jared." They received the next two.

But now, with only two marshmallows left, the host began to talk again. "It's been a while since the last time you were all here, and can't say I'm surprised." Catrina and Xi had failed to receive a marshmallow, and Jack had failed to show up completely.

"H-hey!" Catrina mumbled out. "What? Why am I in the bottom three? I completed the challenge!"

Robin shrugged, humming for a second. "I voted for you, so maybe that's why?"

"H-huh?" The DJ turned towards him. "Robin! I thought we were friends."

"Oh." He didn't know that!

Shaking his head, the host continued. "Catrina, you were never in a good light when it came to the team. You've helped with a loss here and there for them. But today, you lead the last member of the Killer Bass directly to the end."

"Huh?" That's what this was all about? She quickly stood up. "What the hell? I'm not just going to leave her lost on an island! Besides, she would have just followed me anyway."

"Shh!" Chris brought a finger to his lips. "Jack…" The camera panned over to where he would be. "You were one of the people who failed to arrive at the finish line in time. In fact! You failed to arrive at ALL."

The missing spot of Jack said nothing, but understood why they had gotten a vote.

"And lastly…" Chris turned to look at Xi. "You seem to have gotten some votes as well. Any reason why that might be?"

Him, receiving votes? He wasn't surprised in the slightest. He knew it would happen. "Eh." But he didn't really care. If they voted him out over Jack, then they were all stupid.

"The next marshmallow goes to….!" Chris lifted it up in the air! "Catrina!"

Which only left two people without a marshmallow.

Slowly, the host grabbed the last one. "And the final marshmallow of the night GOES to…"

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"Is what I would say, if he was here." Chris tossed the final marshmallow to Xi. "It seems that either myself or Jack have made a mistake."

The host crossed his arms. "Because it seems that Jack had been left on Boney Island."

"Huh?" Jared quickly stood up. "Then we have to go find him. What are we doing here?"

"Sit down!" The host ordered him. "Relax! We have a team out to get him right now."

Marisa raised up her hand, but didn't wait for Chris to call upon her. "Is it a competent team?"

"They are a team, yes." No need to further look into any of that. "But a camper brought it to my attention that if he isn't here, there's no reason to eliminate anyone else off. We can just eliminate him."

"Really…?" Xi raised an eyebrow at that.

Confessional: Xi

"Hmm…" He had his arms crossed, and he was gripping onto a part of his sleeve. "I had nothing to do with this. And this didn't seem like a move made out of nowhere. Someone intends to keep me around, it seems." He shifted his eyes to look directly into the camera. "I suppose this is where the fun begins, is it not?" He let out a low chuckle..

"Huh?" Arianna was still a bit confused about the whole thing. "So just like that, because of your mistake, you are just going to eliminate him."

Chris placed the plate down onto his podium. "It's not my job to make sure you are all accounted for. Most of you are almost adults."

Jared pointed a finger towards him, narrowing his eyes. "It is absolutely your responsibility!"

Marisa hummed out in thought. "If you can't find him, I believe a lawsuit from his parents is in order." She tapped a pencil against her cheek. "Are you sure you can afford that?"

The host shrugged. "I think I can." He flashed his iconic grin. "Besides, this footage won't get released till months later. We'll find him before then." Without waiting for another word, the host turned around to leave.

Most campers were unsure about the turn of events, given that Jack had just vanished completely. But nobody was more pissed off than Arianna, for all the wrong reasons…

Confessional: Arianna

"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! GODDAMMIT PIECE OF SHIT!" She looked like she was about to rip out her own hair. "All that effort just for him to get lost on a fucking island!? Now how am I supposed to get Xi voted off now! Fucking Robin? Have you seen him?"

Confessional: Robin

Robin was sitting down in the confessional booth, tranquillity surrounding him as he read a book. After a few seconds, he slowly flipped the book to the next page.

Confessional: Arianna

"He couldn't just do his FUCKING job!?" She let out a loud scream as frustration set down upon her. "We're getting so close to a potential merge, I wanted to try and get him out before then! How the hell did luck work out in his favour? What a piece of fucking shit!"

Confessional: Robin

He was still reading his book, but now he had a cup of tea with him, still warm. Somehow. Slowly, he took a sip.

Confessional: Arianna

"Whatever." Seems she had finally come to reality with what she had to do. "I guess I lay low and hope that nothing drastic happens. If I can just get four votes on him, I can tie any potential problems. The only issue becomes finding someone gullible enough to listen to a word I say."

Confessional: Robin

He was nearing the end of his novel. Adjusting the monocle he now had, he set his tea down. "Lovely weather out there, innit?"

Dock

Now that the episode was over, Chris stepped onto the dock. "And that concludes today's exciting episode! With Jack gone (but not forgotten), how does that change the dynamic going forward? Will Arianna even be able to bounce back? And did we ever actually deal with that wolf problem from earlier today? The answers to all that and more will be answered in the next episode of Total! Drama!" Phone call. "Yeah? Still haven't dealt with them, huh?" He hung up the phone. "The answer to two of those questions and more will be answered in the next episode of Total! Drama! ISLAND!" And then the camera cut off.

Votes

Xi: 4

Jack: 3

Catrina: 1

Voting Confessionals

Arianna

She had her arms crossed, looking off to the side. "While it might be a little too early, given the forces he managed to amass, I think I need to strike now. I already know Marisa and Catrina are on board. While I'm not sure where Jack is, we should be able to have enough to send him home." She just had to pray that Robin pulled through.

Catrina

"This is the day!" She sounded pumped. "The day I can get my revenge on Xi for forcing me into that deal!" Even if she didn't need to agree to the initial terms. "We should have enough votes to send that fucker home! Or… At least I hope so!" She shrugged. "Never did the math."

Eleanor

"Xi said that we should vote for Jack, given that he was one of the people who failed to show up." She seemed kind of bad about it. "But he didn't really give me any other reasons." Her uncertain face slowly turned to a smile. "But I trust him."

Jack

This is where Jack would have a confessional, but since he's gone-

Jeremy opened the door, sitting down in the confessional booth. "Yes, I'd like to vote off Marisa." He smiled innocently.

Jared

Tipping his hat down, Jared shook his head. "We would have won the challenge had it not been for you, which is why my vote today is going to be to Jack. I couldn't even find him to yell at him. So he had no chance to plead his case." Alas, he wasn't going to listen to Jack anyways.

Marisa

She took a deep breath. "As long as I can take him out now, everything should work out fine, right?" Although, an air of uncertainty still lingered above her. "Still…" She trailed off, marking some notes down. "There is a chance all of this goes wrong. Either a betrayal, or something unexpected happening." However, she believed she was still pretty safe, all things considered.

Robin

"Catrina." He shrugged, not really putting much thought into it. "She was the one who led Mindy directly to the finish line, giving the Killer Bass the win. A pretty easy vote if I do say so myself." He stroked his chin. "So easy, that if anybody votes otherwise, they'd all be stupid."

Talia

She had her eyes closed, legs and arms crossed. Seems she was deep in thought. "Jared asked me to vote for Jack, given his lacklustre performance as of late. However, I don't believe that to be the right move." Her eyes drifted to the side. "Our team is rather well equipped at the moment, so losing isn't something I foresee us doing too often. Which is why I'm going to take the opportunity now and eliminate that bastard Xi. I can't have him getting too close to Eleanor."

Xi

For once, he seemed rather nervous. "I'm not sure how good my chances today are… I got rid of Jack, who seemed like a potential vote, but there's no telling just how much the others have stacked against me. All it takes is Arianna betraying me and it all falls over." Although, there were some other factors he had to worry about too. "Not to mention besides her, the only two people I have in my pocket are Eleanor and Jared, which only adds up to three…" It was clear he didn't have the number game. "So instead, my vote will be for Jack. I see many people voting him off today, after all."

Campers Remaining: 15

Screaming Gophers:

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Arianna Rodriguez: The Popular Girl

Catrina Rwuicks: The Outgoing DJ

Eleanor Eden: The Sweet Gardener

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 Unbearable Scholar

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, Jack