Cody had been sleeping peacefully until the air horn blasted across the island. Despite his overwhelming exhaustion, Cody dragged himself out of bed and outside his cabin alongside the rest of the male Gophers, none looking any more awake than the other. As Chris explained the first part of the challenge, Cody's mind wandered off. He was too tired to try to listen to an explanation of something he already knew. Eventually, he noticed the other campers were starting to line up, so he did as well.
"Okay, runners! On your marks, get set, go!" His air horn blasted, signifying the race had begun. Cody had always been an unathletic kid. Gym class was easily his least favorite, and the only exercise he got was when his bullies chased him home. Now, eight years later, Cody didn't even have that to keep him fit.
Granted, as he ran, he did slightly better than some of those around him. Harold and Noah both seemed to be trying to run, but neither had nearly enough experience to keep themselves from getting winded only a few minutes in. Heather, in all her wisdom, decided not to try and run. A part of Cody was annoyed, but given that this challenge didn't end up mattering, he had to admit it was somewhat clever. Well, clever if she had known it wasn't real. Owen, bless his heart, tried to keep up with the others to stay in conversation. The last time Cody saw him, he was panting over a small puddle.
It was no man's land for most of Cody's run. Those behind him weren't catching up any time soon, but Cody couldn't keep up with people like Lindsay and Gwen, let alone Geoff and Eva. His legs burned and his lungs were failing him, but finally, he saw the mess hall at the end of the tunnel. He burst into the room, dripping in sweat.
"Weak," Eva said, passing him as she jogged around the room.
Cody stared at her in disbelief. "Apparently, she was the first one here, so she started doing that to keep her energy high," Ezekiel whispered, eying Eva who didn't seem to be listening.
"Great, now only three people are holding us up," Gwen rolled her eyes, blowing hair out of her face.
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Trent chuckled next to her.
"At least I wasn't last," Cody mumbled, brushing off the passive-aggressive remark from Gwen. It was true, Heather, Noah, and Owen still hadn't arrived. Only Harold remained behind from the Killer Bass. While their odds weren't looking too good, Cody knew it was only a matter of time before-
"CLEAR A TABLE, STAT!" Owen burst through the door, an unconscious Noah draped over his shoulder. Heather followed close behind, though she appeared entirely indifferent to Noah's situation. A few seconds after her, Harold arrived. Cody couldn't fathom how Harold had managed to lose in a race to someone that walked the whole way, but he wasn't going to question their win. Of course, he knew that wasn't the true challenge. However, being silent would only raise attention to him, so he yelled in excitement along with the rest of his team. Chris then explained that that wasn't the challenge and that they would have to eat a feast.
Despite all logic going otherwise, Cody joined his teammates in their feast. He knew that eating the food would only lead to problems later on, but Cody had forgotten how vile the food was that Chef made. Another opportunity to eat like this wouldn't present itself as long as he was on the island, so he figured he might as well make use of it while he could. As the eating slowed, Chris finally explained the true challenge. Cody tuned his instructions out and only followed the others when they started to leave the mess hall.
He walked straight to his cabin to gather anything he could to occupy himself. Digging through his duffel bag, he found some old comic books, a DDS that had very little battery, and a tape recorder. He plugged the console into the outlets at the washroom as soon as he could so it would have as much battery as it could before the challenge. Upon returning to his cabin to wait, he saw Ezekiel pick up his bow and arrow.
"Planning on taking the opposition out, eh?" Cody joked with a smile.
"W-what?! No! I just want to practice a smidge, eh." Cody rolled his eyes at the lack of awareness from Zeke but smirked nonetheless. Reminding himself of the tape recorder, Cody picked it up and walked over to Ezekiel.
"How about during the contest, you show me how to shoot a bow and arrow, and I explain what this thing is?" He suggested, showing off the tape recorder.
"What is that thing, eh?"
"What?" The tape recorder echoed back to Ezekiel. He looked at it both frightened and intrigued.
"I can explain how this works later. Might as well save it for when we get bored." Just after he said this, he heard Chris yell through the megaphone that their time was up and that they needed to meet at the campfire in three minutes. Cody rushed out to grab his DDS and arrived at his destination with his items stuffed in his pockets. He takes a seat on a log and waits for his competitors to arrive. Once everyone was there, Chris says that the game was now underway.
Immediately, Cody found himself torn. Should he start reading his comics and playing his DDS now? The challenge just started; was it worth using up his sources of entertainment early? He looked around at what the other campers were doing, hoping for some inspiration. On the Screaming Gophers, Noah silently reading a book while stay secluded from his teammates, Lindsay and Beth were talking excitedly about… something, Gwen and Trent were making small talk while trying to hide their respective blushes, Justin, as usual, was just standing there, and Owen was talking to Ezekiel, and although Ezekiel didn't seem to understand much of what the big guy was saying, he was still soaking every word. Heather was eyeing those around her, similar to Cody. Although, he knew her intentions were far different from his own.
The enemy team seemed to be much more friendly with each other. They were all in a conversation discussing their plans for this challenge. All except for Eva, Duncan, and Harold. Harold seemed to be banished from talking to the rest of the group, but he seemed content to dig as far up his nose as he could right now. Duncan was also on his own, whittling away at a piece of wood he found. Lastly was Eva, who was leaning against a tree with her music player sitting in her pocket.
Cody noticed Owen seemed to be slowing down with Ezekiel, and soon after the big guy went to talk to someone else. Cody decided to talk with Zeke.
"Hey Ezekiel, how's it hanging?"
"Huh? I'm not hanging from anything, eh." Cody mentally facepalmed, but resigned to teach him phrases later.
"Wanna show me how to use your bow and arrow?" Ezekiel agreed and walked him a bit away from the main campfire area to not endanger anybody. The prairie boy walked Cody through the steps, though Cody could not get the hang of it. No matter how many times he tried, he was nowhere near hitting the target tree. He finally called it when one of his arrows nearly hit Owen, who was luckily lying down or else he would have been hit. Upon a second look; however, Cody noticed that Owen was asleep. Chris must have made the announcement when he was practicing.
Once they returned and sat on a tree stump, Cody pulled out his tape recorder and handed it to Ezekiel. After explaining what it was and what it could do, Zeke began to use it relentlessly. He went up to different people, would say something to them, and then would play it a second time. Cody found it hilarious, not because anything Zeke said was funny, but rather because he was acting like a five year old. The others seemed less amused.
However, during this, Cody noticed Heather pull Lindsay and Beth away to near where he was practicing archery. Thinking quickly, he sneakily moved himself to the closest seat so that he could hear them. He pulled out one of his comic books and opened it on his lap, not reading it. Predictably, she just lured them in with a nondescript plan to get them to the finals. Of course, Cody knew there was no plan, and that she would just be mean to everybody and yet somehow still get to the top three. However, she would get there noticeably with no allies. As much as he wanted to rush in and stop this whole charade, that would only put a target on his back. Not only would Beth and Lindsay likely not believe him, but Heather would surely find a way to get him booted off the show. So he reluctantly stayed quiet. That was until Lindsay said something.
"Why does Colby keep looking at us?"
"WHAT THE HELL, LINDSAY?" Cody scrambled to dart his eyes back to his unread comic book, though he could feel three sets of eyes staring him down. He tried to remain as stoic as he could, though he could feel a drop of sweat running down his face. If they noticed anything though, they didn't say. They shuffled further away, out of Cody's hearing distance. Not wanting to risk anything, he continued to read his comic until the trio sat down. After waiting a few more minutes, he got up to sit back down where he was before, though he could've sworn that he saw Heather glaring at him. Still, she looked innocent enough after a second.
A few hours passed by with very little happening. Noah, Leshawna, Lindsay, and Beth had since been eliminated from their team. Killer Bass were now missing Tyler, Katie, Geoff, DJ, Harold, and Izzy. Looking up, Cody noticed that Chris was inspecting Justin. He eventually realized that Justin had painted his eyelids, and thus he was out. Everyone else seemed surprised. Granted, it's not like anybody was watching the guy. Why would they?
More hours passed by, and all that remained were Cody, Ezekiel, Gwen, Trent, Duncan, Courtney, and Eva. As much as he wanted to stay awake, Cody's eyes were closing every few seconds. His mind began to go hazy as his head dipped down.
"WHAT?" Cody jolted back awake after only 3 seconds of sleep. He looked up in shock and found Ezekiel standing next to him, tape recorder in hand.
"Come on, eh. Don't sleep… now." He said, his eyes drooping before he fell to the ground. Although the sleep would have been nice, Zeke had just given Cody a jumpstart, his heart hammering out of his chest. He pinched his eyes and pulled out another one of his comics. Before he even realized it, Trent and Courtney had been eliminated. Chris told the rest of the campers to go wash up, and that the remaining four should follow him. "I swear this happened with five campers left last time, no?" he thought. However, Cody chalked this up to his sleep deprivation.
The host then went on to read the history of Canada. Soon after, Eva fell.
"And then there were three." Chris chuckled ominously. At this point, Cody was practically digging his nails through his knees, trying anything to stay awake. However, it wasn't enough.
Just before he knew he would fall, he turned to Gwen and said, "Sorry, Gwen." In reality, it came out as "Sorgwuh". And just like that, Cody was eliminated.
He woke to the sound of Chris and the Screaming Gophers yelling. Judging by their reactions, Cody deduced that they had won like normal and gave a very half-hearted "Woop!" Gwen, who had already fallen asleep, was carried back to the girls' cabin by Leshawna. After their win, the team threw a party at their hot tub. Just before that started, they got to bear witness to Eva's temper tantrum. Cody was nearly knocked unconscious from a guitar thrown out of the cabin, if not for a quick save from Owen.
Heather eventually walked up to, handing her the music player, making Eva look ridiculous. Though part of him wanted to tell everyone the truth, not only would it make it seem like he was helping the enemy, but Eva was too scary of a competitor to keep around. It was best to let her be voted off early. With that done, the Screaming Gophers turned their attention back to the party. Cody stuck around for a few minutes, before quietly sneaking out and passing out on his bunk.
The next time Cody woke, it looked fairly early in the morning outside. Considering it was pretty late at night when he fell asleep, and based on how tired he felt, he realized he had not slept nearly enough. The bunk beds didn't provide a great sleeping arrangement. He decided to sit down on the dock and watch the sunrise and wait for the others.
For the next two hours, campers slowly poured out of their cabins to hang out on their free day. When counting up the teens, Cody noticed Eva's absence, which he knew was for the best for everyone's sake. He turned back around to stare at the endless water that stretched on until it met the sun.
A/N: This chapter has a lot to do with Ezekiel, both currently, and for the future. Highlighting his lack of knowledge of common sayings is a good way to make sure that Ezekiel doesn't just suddenly turn normal. It still keeps him weird. The tape recorder was added here, not only as a way for Zeke to prove his worth by keeping Cody awake, but as foreshadowing for a future chapter. If you've read the old story, you'll know. I thought him having a tape recorder was weird since he was so technology inept, but I couldn't think of a way to change it out for something else, so I dealt with it. Now, I have the chance to rectify that mistake.
I changed Gwen to be the winner instead of my original story for two reasons. One, there was no reason that she would fall asleep before Duncan just because Cody was there, so that didn't make sense. Plus, having Cody win, and through a buzzer beater, felt cheap. I don't want my protagonist to be infallible and able to win challenges he shouldn't realistically.
Eva loses just like in canon. Unlike Sadie, I could have actually worked her into the plot if I wanted to. I just didn't feel like it for Island.