Hi there!
It's been a while, huh? 2 months to be more specific.
I took that hiatus a bit early to focus more and other stuff. Hopefully, the schedule will go back to twice per month, but these next few chapters are really a slog to write down.
Anyway, Happy 2025 and enjoy this torture extravaganza.
Executed:
Owen, Izzy, DJ, Lindsay, Trent, Eva, Cody, Beth, Sadie, Geoff, Bridgette
11 Players Remaining:
Gophers: LeShawna, Heather, Gwen, Noah, Katie, Justin
Bass: Duncan, Courtney, Harold, Tyler, Ezekiel
The camera faded to the familiar wide shot of the island before zooming into Chris.
He had a cheeky smile before announcing "Last time on Total! Drama! Island!"
The camera faded to a flashback of the campers dancing the Thriller dance.
"I was off "running some errands" so old Chef here was watching over the campers. And, boy did he watch over them!"
The camera quickly switched from Chef correcting the maggots' stance with a baton to a frame of Duncan and Tyler in the mess hall.
"Duncan had the choice to retribute Tyler for his little accident with Geoff the day prior but instead did nothing. Boring! It looks like our 'bad boy' is turning up softer than we thought."
"On the gopher side, Heather mentioned to Gwen that LeShawna 'backstabbed' Beth, if you can really call it that, to which the goth girl could not care less."
The camera switched to two scrawny Gopher members writing their essays.
"Katie kept on bargaining about how it was her fault that her bestie is now dead and restie while Noah spent quality time with her."
"But the real star of the show was the other mourning Malibu, Bridgette! Who cracked under the pressure of Geoff being gonzo and Courtney acting like a stickler, downright assaulting her to the point of her being locked up in the boathouse where she offed herself!"
The camera switched to Bridgette's cold body hanging from the ceiling of the boathouse with her fellow teammates surrounding her. Her eyes were pitch black and horrifying.
"Anyways, lots of stuff happened while I was gone, but now it's the last challenge before the teams merge! Who will miss the mark for the merge? Find out right now on Total! Drama! Island!"
Theme Song
The camera faded to the girls side of the Bass cabin, or more accurately Courtney and Duncan's side.
The rascal was asleep in his bed while the calculating CIT was thinking of the day prior.
Flashback:
Fish don't have legs.
Courtney screamed and stumbled over some crates onto the ground.
She jerked her head around to see the daunting figure of Bridgette hanging from the ceiling with pure black tears running from her eyes staring deeply back at her.
She scampered up to her feet and screamed again, running to the open sunshine of the doorway.
End Flashback
(Confessional: Courtney)
The CIT tiredly scratched the back of her neck, looking at the damaged confessional.
"I don't know how many more times we're gonna lose before the teams merge, but I do know that if we lose, the three Stooges are gonna vote for either Duncan or I. And I cannot let that happen."
(Confessional End: Courtney)
The camera switched to the boys side where Ezekiel had woken up from his bed, similarly thinking about Bridgette as the sound of a plane flying faintly played in the distance.
(Confessional: Ezekiel)
The prairie boy scratched his scruffy hair before putting his toque back on.
"I kept thinking about Bridgette, eh, n- not because I'm attracted to her or anything, eh! But- uh- because I never had a chance to talk with her while she was mourning Geoff.
Harold held me back from talking with her, and if I did, maybe she wouldn't have hung herself…"
(Confessional: Ezekiel)
(Confessional: Noah)
The scrawny schemer stretched in the confessional.
"OK, we're coming close to the teams merging which is absolutely great. Me and Katie won't be a target since we're not much of a threat and we can both fly under the radar together. It's been tough watching over her ever since Sadie died."
"Anyways, gameplan-wise, we're likely gunning for LeShawna or Gwen in the case we lose. I'm leaning towards keeping Gwen around in case Heather does end up betraying me, because she's better as a potential ally than LeShawna."
The bookworm chuckled as he brushed his hand through his hair.
"I haven't had much time to think much about strategy ever since Justin put me on duty watching over Katie, but I have to admit that it's not as stressful as planning out my survival."
(End Confessional: Noah)
As the snarky Indian kid walked back to his cabin for his morning routine, he spotted his ally, sitting on the porch of the Gophers cabin.
"Hi Katie," Noah abruptly said as Katie sulked into a lawn chair.
"Hi, Noah." Katie blankly replied with tired eyes and shaggy hair.
"How, uh, are you?" Noah asked, unsure what to say.
"Horrible as usual, but I appreciate the talk from yesterday, I just feel so guilty that Sadie is gone because of me."
The schemer shuddered. Guilt.
Whether if it was what he'd done to that black dude on the other team, or that she bully, or Cody or Beth, he knew that his actions were beginning to catch up to him. But he knew for a fact that Sadie was not a fault of his or Katie's.
"Katie, you need to stop blaming yourself for Sadie." The bookworm squatted down and looked at Katie in the eyes. "We've both done some underhanded stuff to survive and we aren't planning on stopping anytime soon. So you need to stay strong for Sadie, OK?"
Katie gave a soft smile back, she had no idea how she would 'stay strong for Sadie' but she knew that she simply needed to reaffirm to herself that it wasn't any of her fault or karma, even if she knew it completely was.
"I just can't stop thinking of all the crazy shit that's happened in the past few days. From Sadie dying to that surfer girl hanging herself."
Katie sighed in despair. "This whole place just feels hopeless."
The bookworm nodded. He'd hoped that Katie wouldn't have focused on the hanging herself part of yesterday, especially when drastic things similar to it had happened daily for the past two weeks.
"Just hang in there and we'll end up fine, OK? I mean, I think I've done pretty good considering my survival skills so far."
The brainiac cheerfully tapped his skull as Katie returned to a concerned frown.
Noah's schemes made me do all that bad stuff.
Before Katie could speak, however, the old summer speakers screeched on with Chris's ecstatic voice blowing right through. The two allies covered their ears instinctively.
"Rise and shine campers!" Chris proudly announced. "Come right outside pronto!"
Noah and Katie both uncovered their ears from the screeching as nine additional groggy campers walked outside of their cabins before looking up at the sky to see Chris flying an orange plane straight at them.
The campers jolted down while Chris landed his plane on the ground by the cabins.
Chris laughed heartily while he slid down the window of the plane before he picked up some parachutes.
"Campers!" The host gleefully announced while tossing the parachutes to the ground, almost hitting Heather in the process.
"Rude!" She spat bitterly.
"Today we are going to have ourselves an extrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreme Sports Challenge!" Chris clapped with a smile to no similar response.
He cleared his throat after receiving blank responses and he skimmed through his notebook.
He frowned monotonously as he looked through the notebook. "Okayyyy… so for our first challenge we will have X-TREME SPORTS SKYDIVING!" He announced through his megaphone loudly, causing all the campers and Chef who was in the back of the small cropduster to cover their ears.
"We are right here, you asshole." Gwen snarled as she lowered her ears.
"It ain't worth slandering that prick." LeShawna whispered to Gwen.
"When we have limited days to do so? It's always worth it."
Chris cleared his voice again to stop the side conversation and began explaining the challenge.
"For the skydiving, most of the team will be moving around this old couch to catch their sole skydiving teammate."
Chef opened the door to the back of the plane and tossed out a old raggy green couch before jumping down onto it.
"The camper that misses and potentially fractures their spine does not get a point for their team."
"We just had an entire military training sesh. I can't wait for another mentally taxing challenge…" Noah said sarcastically to the moody Katie.
"Indeed it is Noah! And for that, you're going to A: Chef…"
The black cook smacked Noah on the back of his big head hard. "Ow!"
"And B: You'll be skydiving for the gophers while Courtney does it for the bass."
Noah quietly cursed while Courtney breathed in confidently.
(Confessional: Noah)
The bookworm sighed in the confessional.
"I should've kept my big mouth shut. I just can't wait to show off my athletic capabilities."
The camera turns to static.
(End Confessional: Noah)
(Confessional: Courtney)
The CIT adjusted herself formally in her seat.
"Today's challenge is out of three. I just need to win this skydiving challenge which I know I can do. And then hopefully Duncan gets a challenge which he can easily win, I'm confident in him. The only downside is if the other two are in the hands of the other three nutjobs…"
Courtney put her hands on her head.
"We're going to friggin' die…"
(End Confessional: Courtney)
The camera switched back to the beach, where Courtney and Noah were strapping on their parachutes.
Heather spoke up with a hungry attitude. "Um, hello? What about breakfast? We haven't been able to eat jack shit for 2 days because of Chef's garbage fetish."
Chris gave a smug smile back to the mean girl. "Oh, believe me, I have reviewed the footage of you eating garbage extensively."
The Queen Bee scrunched up her face in disgust and backed away.
The host stuttered and cleared his voice. "Uhh, and, also breakfast will be served after Courtney and Noah's morning exercise. Chef will serve something pretty edible for once. We don't want our contestants to all starve to death."
"That implies that some of us can starve?" Harold nasally asked.
"Chef if you will," Chris asked as he tapped the side of the plane.
The black cook slapped the second nerd on the back of his head. "Ow! Gosh!"
Chris put on his plane goggles before starting up the plane just as the two skydivers got on.
"See you guys at the bottom!" Noah waved to Katie and Justin as the plane speeded away.
The camera flashed to a view of the four remaining bass boys hauling their sofa toward the landing spot.
Tyler and Ezekiel carried one end while Duncan and Harold both pushed the opposite end.
Harold couldn't help but blankly stare at Duncan while they pushed.
Duncan, feeling the pressure, scolded back. "What are you staring at, Harold? It's rude."
(Confessional: Duncan)
The delinquent scratched the back of his neck as he leaned back into the confessional toilet.
"It's really weird now that Malib- Bridgette is actually gone for good. She and Geoff were alive and well just three days ago. This fucking thing is just crazy, dude."
The delinquent began scratching at the side of the confessional.
"I guess I'll have to get more allies after the teams merge, specifically on the other team, I mean that Gwen girl looks pretty hot, same with that Heather chick. Court's been pretty off ever since Jockstrap killed Geoff, I still kinda regret not doing anything about it yesterday, I was a weak idiot there."
The delinquent stopped scratching the side of the wall before looking down at the floorboards to think.
(End Confessional: Duncan)
Harold shrugged before looking back down at the sandy ground.
On the other side of the couch, Tyler and Ezekiel were conversing with each other with the former staring at the delinquent.
"I can tell you still feel really guilty about Geoff, but now Bridgette too, eh?" Ezekiel said to his ally.
"Is it that obvious?" Tyler asked nervously.
The homeschooler nodded before advising his friend. "You just have to make up for your mistakes, Tyler, no matter if they forgive you or not, you should persevere and you'll feel better before you die."
Tyler gave a half smile to his friend. "Thanks Zeke, although, I really don't want to die as obvious as it seems."
Ezekiel shrugged with curiousity. "Still, you only get one shot to make up for your mistakes, you don't want to waste it, eh."
"I guess."
"That's why I'm not letting Harold stop me from helping out Courtney." Ezekiel said abruptly, whispering even quieter to not let Harold hear.
"Uhh. What do you mean?" Tyler asked.
Ezekiel looked up at the jock profoundly. "Harold stopped me from letting me talk things out with Bridgette, leading to her deterioration, eh? Courtney's been going through a tough time too, I can just sense that she's losing herself. I don't care if Harold classifies her as 'an enemy', Courtney is a person too, and I should help her."
Tyler nodded, somewhat confused with what Zeke was saying, "Whatever you say, bro."
Harold looked up to the sky and saw Chris's orange plane flying by with two distinct figures jumping out of it.
"Look! They're jumping out the plane! Move the couch south!"
The four bass boys hauled the couch back while Courtney's horrific screams began coming closer in earshot.
"MOVE EAST! MOVE EAST!" She screamed as she frantically began tugging on her parachute, praying for it to open.
Thankfully, her parachute opened early enough for her to be able to guide it down onto the raggy couch her teammates opened up.
The CIT sighed in relief before bracing her legs. "MOVE IT MORE EAST!" She said clearly as Duncan pushed the sofa right as Courtney landed.
"Yes!" Courtney cheered as she landed perfectly on the soft sheets of the couch.
"Finally! A challenge we can win for once!" She laughed as Duncan pulled her out of the couch.
"Don't touch me!" She said abruptly as Duncan held his hands up.
On the gophers, LeShawna and Heather were pushing their red couch towards the marked 'X' while Justin looked up at the sky to see Noah hurling toward the beach.
"Move the sofa toward my sexy body!" Justin yelled as Gwen began pulling the couch towards Justin.
Meanwhile, in the air above, Noah was yelling frantically and pulling hard on the cord of his parachute.
"OPEN DAMMIT!" He kept yelling as the parachute only to yank the cord completely off the chute.
"Son of a bitch!" He muttered as his parachute instantly opened, granting him a sigh of relief.
The bookworm wiped his forehead and looked down to see his teammates below him with the couch extended.
Unfortunately for the High Iq, a strong gust of wind easily blew his scrawny body far off course towards the pine trees around the beach.
"OH, SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! HELP!" He screamed as he collided face-first into the top of the tree, with him ending up hanging stuck from his parachute.
The gophers collectively groaned as Noah blew off course and into the forest as Chris pulled up next to the group on an ATV.
"No Noah means no points! Just be thankful his spine is still attached otherwise he'd be 'dispatched' from the competition!" Chris said in a sing-songy voice.
"Fuck off, asscrack." Katie blankly responded, greatly upsetting the host.
"I'd pull out my handgun, but I don't want to lose the effectiveness of its terror, now git." Chris pointed off at Noah while the Killer Bass came over to talk with their adversaries.
Duncan kindly handed over Courtney's parachute while the CIT herself taunted the Gophers.
"Looks like keeping that turkey didn't end up going so well for you, things are finally looking up for us!" Courtney smuggly smiled at Heather.
"Yeah, it only took you three losses in a row, miss B-I-T-C-"
"Oh, shut up." Courtney whined. "I'm still alive, right? And that's the main goal as far as I'm concerned."
(Confessional: Heather)
The Queen Bee filed her nails inside of the confessional.
"I'm not stupid, you know, I can tell that Noah is crafty and is probably plotting to backstab me as soon as he possibly can. He's probably already making moves, I'll have to make sure that he knows his place and that I can get him eliminated ASAP."
She put the nail filer into her back pocket.
"Then, I can continue using dunderheads like Katie to ensure that I get out of here alive."
(End Confessional: Heather)
"Whatever," Heather responded before looking over at Gwen.
"Gwen, go get fetch Noah." She instructed.
"What? Why me?" Gwen asked.
"Because unlike me, I've been pushing this sofa around while you've been standing their all uselessly. At least Katie has an excuse that she's… depressed or whatever. Look will you just get the damn boy?"
Gwen pouted and rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll fetch your free vote for you, Your Highness."
As the goth ball left, Ezekiel approached Courtney who had been dusting sand off of her torso.
"Uh, hi Courtney." Ezekiel awkwardly said. "Do you have a minute?"
The CIT rolled her eyes before formally crossing her arms.
"What do you need, Ezekiel?"
The religious boy sniffled. "I just noticed that you've been acting pretty rough ever since Bridgette died yesterday and-"
Courtney furrowed her brow and stepped closer to the prairie boy.
"Look, Zeke, you don't get to mention Bridgette after what your friend made her end up."
"That's not the correct grammar, eh." Ezekiel shyly corrected as Courtney rolled her eyes.
"I don't care, Bridgette killed herself and that's that."
Ezekiel stuttered. "But, I can sense that you feel bad about it, eh, almost as if you're guilty about it."
Courtney scoffed and pushed the religious boy to the side.
"Just, please focus on beating today's challenge." Courtney said as she walked away, swiftly adding, "And don't you bring up Bridgette!"
Noah flailed around from the strings of his parachute as Gwen came up to the scene.
"Noah?" The goth called out as the bookworm waved back to her.
"I'm over here. I'm betting that Heather sent you?"
Gwen nonchalantly nodded. "Yup. Miss Queen of Mean. She's too tired to fetch her own minions."
Noah smirked. "True, just get me down from here."
"She's just so…" Gwen caught herself before dismissing herself. "Eh, whatever, I still can't believe you're working with her."
The schemer undid some of the parachute strings. "I'm not really working with her, I'm just voting with her."
"Same thing." Gwen swiftly replied. "It's not fair that you have a higher chance of surviving than me even though I'm willing to fight tooth and nail to live."
"I'm the one who just skydived out of a faulty plane, sweetheart," Noah shot back.
"And you missed because your turkey body was too fragile for the wind."
The bookworm rolled his eyes at Gwen's scowl. "If it makes you feel better the Queen herself has LeShawna first on her list."
"Being second in the line of fire does not make me feel better, Noah."
The bookworm undid the last of his parachute strings.
"Well, not only that, but LeShawna spoke to me about voting off Heather before she potentially backstabs me in the back, and to be honest, I'm considering it."
The loner caught Noah as he fell from the treetop.
"You're gonna talk about flipping against Heather with Katie and Justin?"
The bookworm nodded. "I will if we can work together in the merge."
Gwen smiled. "Definitely then. I'm glad that you think of me as a potentially better ally than the raven-haired shit or that sad case of a sob story."
Noah furrowed his brow. "Hey, Katie's going through a hard time. Don't be rough on her."
The goth crossed her arms. "We're all going through a hard time and frankly I didn't know that you cared."
"I mean, I don't really?"
"Me neither. All I care about is getting allies and getting out of here, so are you going to talk with Katie and Justin about voting for Heather?"
Noah thought for a second. "I said I'll think about it."
The camera switched to a scene of the campers all inside of the mess hall eating their breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs.
A few interns came in the room to adjust Bridgette's poster to the image of her hanging from the boathouse ceiling with dark tears emitting from her eyes.
Duncan shuddered and looked away from Bridgette's poster to his food.
He looked to his right where Courtney was sitting.
"So whats the plan now Court? We're both at the bottom of the barrel and are next up for execution the next time we lose."
"Don't remind me." Court bitterly said.
"We just have to not lose for the next couple of rounds until the merge hits and then we can work with some people on the Gopher's team."
Duncan raised his brow and peered over to the other table where the Gophers were collectively eating.
"Who were you thinking about working with? I mean that Gwen chick looks pretty hot."
Courtney scoffed and set down her fork. "We're not evaluating or potential allies based on looks you ogre. I'd bet you would love to have Justin on our side."
"And you wouldn't?" Duncan slyly smiled.
"That's besides the point. Anyway, I was thinking that we would either try to work with Gwen and LeShawna who also seem desperate for allies or momentarily work with Heather who seems smart."
Duncan scooped some eggs into his mouth. "Isn't she in a big group with three other guys?"
The CIT nodded. "That alliance is doomed to crumble. Katie's acting like a crybaby, Noah is lazy, and Justin is just stupid. They're bound to betray Heather and fly under the radar."
Courtney turned back around to face her food. "We just need to win these next few days until the merge hits. Thankfully, we only need to win one of these next two rounds because of me."
On the other side of the table, Tyler was solemnly staring at the adversarial duo.
"Zeke, what do you reckon that I should specifically do to 'makeup' what I've done to Geoff?"
The religious boy thought for a second before Harold intervened.
"Gosh, Tyler! You don't need to do anything to make up for your mistakes. What happened has happened."
The nerd fiercely set down his spoon. "And you better not make up for it by voting for one of us with them or something."
Tyler put his hands up defensively. "Nonono I wasn't thinking of anything like that."
"Well… I'd suggest first letting them know how sorry you are, eh." Zeke explained. "Then… I honestly don't know. God will let your instincts know when you're doing the right thing."
Tyler nodded before continuing to eat his food as Harold gave a dismissive sigh.
"Anyway, I was thinking when the teams merge that we can just stick together." Harold nasally explained. "We just need to get Duncan and Courtney off our backs by eliminating them and the Gophers can fight each other."
Zeke frowned while Tyler nodded. "That's sounds like a good plan, right Zeke?"
The jock turned towards his prairie boy friend who looked down at his food sadly.
"It's horrible seeing people turn against each other. I really hope that doesn't happen to us, eh."
"It won't Zeke, I promise," Harold reassuringly said. "Even if the odds of all three of us making out of here alive are slim, we're still going to put out our best shot. I'm making sure of it."
Zeke nodded as the camera switched to the other side of the room where the Gophers where eating.
Katie left her food untouched as she stared directly at Bridgette's horrendous poster.
All that was on her mind was Sadie and how she failed to stop her from dying.
Through her actions of framing Cody, lashing out at Beth, and most importantly conspiring with Noah to do all of those bad things.
The bookworm had reassured her it wasn't her fault at all, but she still felt as if it was.
Noah was the one who pushed me to do those bad things.
As Katie sat far away from her allies, Justin looked at Katie with skepticism in his beautiful baby-blue eyes.
"Noah, how have things with Katie been going?" The model asked in his soothing warm yet manly voice.
"Eh." He abruptly sputtered. "She's been going through grief. I don't think she's going to get much better soon."
Justin raised his eyebrow and followed Katie's gaze towards the terrifying poster of Bridgette's corpse.
"Ew. Anyways, make sure to keep a close eye on her today after yesterday's fiasco."
The eye candy nudged Noah and pointed his head at the poster of Bridgette as Noah went wide eyed.
"I don't think she's going to pull off a stunt like that. I'll definetly keep a close eye on her though."
(Confessional: Justin)
The model flexed his muscular manly biceps.
"I'm not much of a strategist, which is why I leave the thinking up to Noah and Heather. But I can tell that this alliance is pretty fragile which is why I'm trying to keep it together."
(End Confessional: Justin)
The host with the most proudly burst through the doors of the mess hall with a cowboy hat and boots on. He put the megaphone up to his mouth and announced:
"Alright, partners! Our second sports challenge is X-TREME RODEO MOOSE RIDING!"
The camera switched to Chris walking outside presenting a moose inside a fence.
"One camper from each team will have to rodeo ride the great Canadian bucking moose for 8 seconds or…"
The camera panned over to a pile of smelly socks with Katie, Duncan, LeShawna, and Gwen around it pinching their nose. Ezekiel simply smiled with confusion at the pile.
"Land into a big pile of smelly socks!"
"Why'd you put the extra effort of putting the socks there, eh? It's not likely that we're even going to land in it, eh. You'd be better off just putting it around the fencing."
Chris rolled his eyes with annoyance. "Chef, if you will."
The fierce cook stomped behind the Ezekiel before slapping his behind with a baton.
"Ow, Eh!"
"Since you asked, Zekey boy, you can go up for the Killer Bass and for the gophers, Katie can go."
The camera turned to see Katie sulking tiredly.
"Ugh, do I have to?" She whined.
"Come on, Kate, do it for Sadie, huh?" Noah reassured as Katie gave a suspicious glance back at him.
"Someone from your team needs to ride that moose for 8 seconds if you don't want to be on the execution block tonight!"
Katie gave a tired expression as Noah frowned back.
Gwen scoffed and rolled her eyes before raising her hand swiftly. "Ugh. If Katie is too lazy to go for her team, I'll do it!"
(Confessional: Gwen)
The goth crossed her arms and scowled at the camera.
"I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get out of here alive. I'm willing to do these ridiculous challenges and yet I'm the main target because Heather's able to gather more gremlins for herself."
"I hate Heather. And Katie. And Noah. And especially Chris. And everybody here."
The goth sighed disappointingly at herself.
"I just need to keep winning with LeShawna until the teams merge. It's a good thing I've convinced her to not be distracted by bickering with Heather and focus on the game instead."
(End Confessional: Gwen)
Chris laughed before dismissing the loner.
"Hold your horses, Gwen, you're doing the next challenge along with Heather, so neither of you two can go."
Gwen nudged her large black ally who raised her hand.
"Fine, I can go ride the damn moose instead," LeShawna declared.
Chris shrugged. "Sure, LeShawna can go for the gophers instead of Katie."
(Confessional: Heather)
Heather snickered to herself in the confessional.
"Of course LeShawna is very familiar with riding mooses."
(End Confessional: Heather)
The camera switched over to Ezekiel climbing a ladder that lead to the side of the fence of where the moose was.
The moose calmly ate grass before glancing a suspicious look towards the prairie boy.
"Alright Zeke, just hold onto his antlers as tight as you can, okay?" Courtney calmly instructed.
"Grip it hard, Zeke!" Duncan added in.
"I got this, eh." Ezekiel reassured himself while hopping onto the back of the moose.
The camera showed a close up of the moose with a stern look in his eyes.
"Back home, my Uncle Isaiah would take us riding horses on the field. This should be easy."
Courtney smiled confidently. "That's great to hear Zeke just hold on tight."
The prairie boy gripped the antlers of the moose and Chef cautiously unlocked the moose's gate.
In an instant, the moose bashed through the gate, knocking the black drill sergeant to his feet with Ezekiel flailing on his back.
"WOOAHHAAHAHOW! EH!" The homeschooler whooped before being knocked off the moose and directly into the pile of dirty socks.
"Watch where you land, dweeb!" Heather complained as the gophers were splattered from the sock collision.
Katie sighed solemnly before removing stinky socks from her person.
"Yeesh," Chris said, not even having his stopwatch started. "I didn't even get the chance to time Zeke before the moose bashed him out. Killer Bass gets nada."
The prairie boy popped out of the pile where Courtney quickly grabbed him and yanked him out.
"God dammit Ezekiel! I thought you said you had this in the bag," Courtney quickly scolded.
"I thought I did! I'm sorry, eh!" Ezekiel put his hands up in defense.
The CIT let go of the prarie boy's hoodie and set him down.
"Hey, calm it down, Courtney," Tyler calmly said.
Courtney snapped her head back and glared intensely at the jock who froze up and shuddered.
Chris appeared on frame with a smug smile.
"Calm it, CIT, the Gopherinos need to go now without falling off the moose otherwise it's execution time for them. Interns!"
The camera panned over to the moose being locked up in the fencing again by two strong interns while LeShawna looked worryingly at the moose.
Gwen put a reassuring hand on LeShawna's shoulder.
"Come on LeShawna, you can do this," the goth cracked a small smile before the moose huffed an angry breathe.
"You need to."
LeShawna gulped before climbing up the ladder to the moose.
"You're not the one about to ride a 500 pound beast, Gwen," LeShawna said cautiously before mounting on top of the angry moose.
"Man, am I envious." Justin whispered, earning a suspicious glance from Noah.
The contestants all collectively backed far away from the moose and the sock pile as Chef came close to open the fence gate once more.
"You don't wanna test me now, boy." LeShawna firmly whispered to the moose.
The moose huffed once more and bashed open the fence gate and Chef along with it.
LeShawna gripped tight to the moose's antlers as the moosh attempted to kick LeShawna off of his back.
At 3 seconds in, while the gophers were watching with heavy anticipation, Gwen quickly thought of an idea and pulled off Justin's shirt.
Instinctively, Justin began flexing his biceps and the moose stopped bashing around to gawk at the beautiful model.
With the tranquil moose, LeShawna was able to grip onto the moose harder without falling off.
Chris, stunned by Justin's beautiful (and underaged) body forgot to announce the fact that LeShawna had earned a point for her team by the time the eight second timer went off.
Courtney groaned aloud, breaking the entrancement that the campers and the moose were in before LeShawna was kicked off the moose and into the ground.
The gophers all cheered as LeShawna got a point for her team, with Courtney staring bitterly off to the side.
"Th- that can't possibly be allowed, right?" The CIT whined to the pleased host.
Chris shrugged and gave a silent smug smile to Courtney.
Courtney groaned again and stomped off back to her team.
Ezekiel immediately stood up and tried to calm down Courtney.
"Calm down Courtney, you're gonna drag down yourself."
Courtney paused and gave a short unbelieving laugh.
"Seriously? I'm dragging myself down? I got the fucking point for my team last round yet you failed to ride the goddamn moose. Something you claimed you've done before."
Ezekiel refused to back down. "Yes, that's true, eh, but your attitude's been off ever since Bridgette died. It's gonna make you-"
"I thought I told you not to bring Bridgette back up again." Courtney firmly glared at Ezekiel who raised his hands up in defense.
"You shouldn't run from it, eh. I can tell it's not making you feel well."
Harold face palmed from the sidelines before whispering to the prairie boy: "Psst, Zeke, knock it off."
The homeschooler frowned at the nerd before looking back at Courtney. "Seriously, Courtney, you need to-"
"No, you need to listen to me and succeed at challenges. That's how you survive around here, Ezekiel, now stop bothering me."
Courtney stomped away as Duncan indifferently followed.
Tyler blinked in surprise.
(Confessional: Tyler)
The jock nervously shook his legs, clearly stressed out.
"I don't know how I'm going to make up for my errors to Courtney after seeing how she blew up at Zeke like that."
Tyler put his hands on his head, trying to relax himself.
"Ugh, why is all of this stuff so confusing."
(End Confessional: Tyler)
(Confessional: Ezekiel)
The prairie boy picked his nose before flinging it against the confessional wall.
"This whole show is crazy, eh. It's corrupting people up. If Courtney- or anybody here on this island continues down this path they'll come out like a deformed green feral monster! I can't imagine ending up like that, eh!"
(End Confessional: Ezekiel)
The delinquent quickly followed behind the storming CIT before catching up with her.
"Hey, Courtney, wait up!"
Courtney rolled her eyes before looking back at the ogre. "What is it now? Are you going to chastise me too for acting like an asshole?"
Duncan sighed before looking matter-of-factly at Courtney.
"Look, I hate the three Stooges as much as you, but you have been acting pretty unhinged ever since yesterday. More than usual."
Courtney crossed her arms and stood up firmly. "And is that an issue? I just can't stand it that I seem to be the only one taking any of this bullshit seriously anymore."
A small tear came out of Courtney's eye before she sank down to the ground.
"And I can't believe that Bridgette is fucking dead." Courtney tried to hold herself back from crying as Duncan worryingly reassured her.
"Hey, hey, it's not your fault." He whispered.
"Of course it isn't my fault! I never said anything like that." Courtney quickly whipped back at the delinquent.
"Yeah, absolutely," Duncan said conflictingly.
"What, are you believing Ezekiel's lies too?" Courtney accusingly looked at Duncan.
"No! I just maybe kinda sorta cared if you were alright! Because I do care, Court…"
"You're the only ally I have left."
Courtney ended her accusatory glare before pausing and taking in a deep breath.
"Thank you, Duncan," Courtney muttered out before storming off once more.
(Confessional: Duncan)
The delinquent rolled his eyes in frustration.
"Man, typically teasing Type A's like that would be funny, but Courtney is just a whole tiring firecracker to deal with."
(End Confessional: Duncan)
The camera panned back to the cheering gophers while Justin put on another of his seemingly infinite supply of easily rippable shirts.
"Nice thinking there, Gwen." LeShawna high-fived her ally while Noah gave an approving smirk.
"You did great too, LeShawna," Gwen replied, overjoyed with her success.
"At least you can do great on the challenge unlike some other sad sob stories." Gwen gave a toxic eye roll Katie, who was sitting far away from the gopher crowd on a rock.
Noah's approving smirk quickly dissipated as he stepped forward.
"Hey, what the hell?"
Gwen quickly realized her slip-up and apologized.
"Sorry, sorry, I… guess I just got caught in the excitement…" Gwen gave an ingenuine smile at Noah who dismissed her before walking back to where Katie was sitting.
"Ahh, you don't always have to apologize to pieces of shit, Gwenny." LeShawna reassured to her friend.
"Yeah, but I don't want to piss off potential allies," Gwen whispered through her teeth. "Especially when Noah's thinking about turning you-know-who."
LeShawna raised her eyebrow before looking at Heather, who was cluelessly filing her nails.
(Confessional: Gwen)
The goth leaned forward into the confessional.
"I kinda accidentally slipped up there. Ever since I realized that Heather was working with weasels like Noah and annoying prep girls like Katie, I sorta began to dislike them a lot more. And then Noah's constant gall to defend Katie for mourning Sadie when we also have to go through constant shit? That's also starting to get under my skin."
(End Confessional: Gwen)
The bookworm walked off to where Katie was sitting and greeted her.
"Hey, Katie, you've been acting especially upset today. I mean you didn't participate in the challenge - I assume Sadie is still bothering you?"
Katie tearfully nodded, trying to hold herself back from crying.
The girl looked solemnly at the ground in silence, with a look that said that she was giving up.
"It's so horrible to know that I caused Sadie to die and that I'm going to end up just like her."
Noah's eyes went wide and he put a reassuring hand on Katie's shoulder.
"Hey, hey, I already told you, stop blaming yourself for Sadie, it's not your fault at all."
Katie glared upsettingly at Noah. "It's not just my fault but it's your's too."
Noah bit his lip in guilt, saying nothing.
"If you didn't force me to do all those bad things, Sadie would still be here. She- she would be alive and everything would be absolutely fine."
Noah stuttered. "Katie… that's not…"
"It's because of you that I framed Cody, th- that I argued with Beth." Katie gave a teary cry at Noah.
"I just want to be left alone," Katie said before sulking away.
Noah blinked in deep thought.
(Confessional: Noah)
The bookworm groaned in the confessional.
(End Confessional: Noah)
Noah quickly exited the confessional, still deep in thought before being spotted by the beautiful anti-him.
"Noah!" Justin announced while approaching the reader.
"Justin." Noah dryly greeted.
"I want to talk about Katie." Justin said matter-of-factly.
Noah gave a sarcastic laugh. "Hahaha, yeah, I'd really rather not right now Justin,"
The model gave him a confused eyebrow raise before Noah perked up in realization.
"Oh, there actually was kinda something that I wanted to talk with you about."
"Uh, shoot."
Noah pushed his hair to the side before explaining: "LeShawna approached me about potentially voting for Heather tonight if we lose."
Justin blinked. "Why the hell would we do that? Heather's an ally."
Noah pointed his finger up. "True, but, Heather's like an eel dipped in grease, swimming in motor oil."
"Uh, oiled up? I know a lot about it, but what does that have to with anything?"
Noah rolled his eyes. "It means untrustworthy you moron."
Justin perked up in realization. "Ohhh. Yeah, I know what you mean. In fact, I can tell that she's been pretty upset at me ever since that cooking challenge when I was the cooking leader guy."
"The head chef?"
"Yeah, that. Anyway, I have been thinking doing something about Heather before she does something like betray us." Justin surprisingly mentioned.
Noah perked up. "Really? You've been strategizing about what to do with Heather? So there is a brain in there, tell me more."
"We, uhh, vote her off and then I can seduce the girls and guys via my sexy superpowers."
Noah facepalmed. "Whatever, sure, it's still a work in progress plan and who knows, Heather might still be useful in the future or just not betray us after all. I'm still not 100% sure with this plan because it's risky to lose Heather."
Justin smiled back. "Whatever you say, you're the schemer after all, Noah."
The bookworm nodded before walking away with the model following shortly after.
From behind the confessional, Heather angrily popped out unbeknownst to her allies. She angrily snapped her nail filer.
(Confessional: Heather)
Heather gave a angry glare at the confessional camera.
"Those two better think twice if they think they can betray me. Vote for me? After all I've done for them? Ugh! I can't stand that stupid nerd and his sexy boyfriend Justin for conspiring against me like that."
Heather angrily thought before looking back at the camera.
"God… I need to think up of a plan… I really need to win now…"
(End Confessional: Heather)
The camera panned over to a view of a mud skiing arena with red and green flags littered across the scenery.
Chris arrived onto the scene of campers overviewing the mud via his red ATV and equipped with a megaphone.
"CAMPERS! IT'S TIME FOR YOUR FINAL CHALLENGE: THE X-TREME SEA DOO WATER SKI CHALLENGE!" Chris announced.
"One camper from each team will water ski through a race course while trying to grab as many flags as they possibly can while a person on the other team drives them around. The skier will get super muddy and dirty as they collect as many of the five flags of their team color as possible."
"What?" Justin asked to his dorky ally. "I mean, I know a lot about getting dirty but mud stains will never suffice."
Noah ignored the model's shenanigans.
Chris smiled and got off his ATV. "Duncan will drive Gwen around and Heather will drive Harold around."
Tyler frowned. "Aww man, I wanted to do something in the sports challenge."
Duncan laughed dismissively. "Trust me, buddy, you've seen enough extremity already."
Tyler frowned more. "I could've try to prove myself more."
"Oh, you've proven a lot, Tyler," Courtney said formally. "You've proven how surprising someone can fail at a simple task."
The upset jock nodded in understanding.
"You got this sister." LeShawna reaffirmed to her friend before giving her a high-five. "Don't mess this up, homegirl."
"I sure hope I do, we both know how much we depend on this," the loner replied.
The camera flashed forward to both Gwen and Harold in their swimsuits with Duncan already on top of the vehicle ready to drive.
"Nice speedo, dorkus," Duncan teased the nerd who simply rolled his eyes back at the delinquent.
Courtney gave a ticked-off glare at Duncan and turned to Harold. "Just don't mess this up, OK?"
"Actually, Chris said that Gwen is supposed to go first-"
"Don't mess this up, Harold," Courtney instructed intimidatingly to the dweeb.
Harold raised his hands back in defense and backed away.
(Confessional: Harold)
The dweeb was in the confessional, still in his tight red speedo.
"For once, it doesn't really matter too much if we win or lose. If we win, the entire team lives longer, but if we lose, Zeke, Tyler, and I have the majority voting power."
The dweeb smiled at the camera.
"Gosh, does it feel good to finally feel safe on this island for once."
(End Confessional: Harold)
(Confessional: Courtney)
The overachiever sat uptight in the confessional.
"Harold doesn't specifically need to win for himself, which is something that I am highly worried about."
The CIT groaned and tugged on her hair. "Urgh! Why did I have to get the worst luck imaginable? Two teammates unluckily die no matter what I would've done, and I have no control over my team anymore."
(End Confessional: Courtney)
The camera switched back to the muddy arena where Duncan revved up the vehicle with Gwen in a proper skiing posture behind him.
Chris walked onto the screen with Chef behind him. "Hey, that Cody kid would go berserk if she saw that goth chick right now, eh?"
The Chef merely rolled his eyes back at the host before walking away.
"Sheesh, you think you'd know a guy." He complained before the camera panned over to the right where the gophers were.
"You got this homegirl!" LeShawna cheered alongside three of her gopher teammates.
"Come on, gothie!" Heather cheered enthusiastically.
Gwen looked back and Chris fired his silvery handgun into the air.
Suddenly, Duncan zoomed forward, stomping the vehicle's pedal to maximum acceleration immediately, with Gwen nearly losing balance off the skis.
The loner wobbled a bit before gripping hard on the rope and leaning forward to recalibrate her posture.
The vehicle quickly zoomed forward with a muddy ramp right ahead of the two contestants.
Duncan smirked as he drove over the ramp, driving unsteady to try to knock Gwen off of her skis.
Gwen held on despite the rocky ride and snatched the first flag with ease.
"Oh come on!" Duncan whined before speeding up ahead.
The goth girl ignored the delinquent's remark, focusing on grabbing as much flags as she could.
The duo passed the second flag with Gwen catching it.
Then the third.
And then the fourth.
And finally the fifth.
Gwen smiled with confidence as Duncan scowled back at her.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Duncan tried hopping on his vehicle to shake Gwen off but she wouldn't budge off.
Duncan turned to look back at Gwen winking at him before he looked back in front of him where a large rock stood.
"Oh shit!" Duncan exclaimed before swerving a hard right, knocking Gwen to off the skis and onto the mud.
"Gah!" She slid through the rough and rocky mud painfully as her grip onto the flags loosened.
She tightened her grip harder on the flags to not let a single one of them fall before trying to hoist herself up, but it was simply impossible after losing the skis.
With her attempt to stand back up, she accidentally let one of the flags slip out of her grasp and onto the muddy ground, not realizing as she and Duncan passed through the finish line.
Duncan got off the vehicle and scowled.
"What happened, dude?" Chris said, preemptively unholstering his silvery handgun in case Duncan would respond impuslively.
"That chick was determined." Duncan pointed before storming off.
Gwen quickly got up from the ground, with mud and sticks covering her entire body. She had a huge smile across her face before she jolted back down, clutching her stomach and legs.
"Aghh! Friction burns!" She painfully whined as LeShawna and Noah came to her side.
"Nice job homegirl, but yikes does that seem like it hurts." LeShawna patted her ally on the back.
"Wait, I thought you got all five flags. There's only four here." Noah said after picking up the four flags Gwen had.
"What?" Gwen worryingly checked Noah's hand. He was right, she only had four flags when crossing the line.
"Oh shit- oh shit- oh shit-" The three teammates looked back at the ski course and saw a muddy green flag in the middle of the arena.
"One missing flag for the gophers!" Chris pridefully announced. "That means that the Killer Bass can still win this if they get all the flags!"
Gwen anxiously put her hands on her head in disbelief before jolting back down again to clutch her friction burns.
The Killer Bass cheered as Heather eyed her adversaries with disgust.
(Confessional: Heather)
The mean girl sat worryingly in the confessional.
"I need to win this, there's no way I'm letting that dweeb win this for his stupid team of fish fuckers. I'm at heavy risk at getting executed if we lose."
The queen bee sighed to herself.
"I've made too many enemies here, haven't I? Hmph. I'm not going to back down and hide like that weasel would, I like to compete head on. Bring it on, Bass!"
(End Confessional: Heather)
(Confessional: Gwen)
The goth anxiously clenched her fists in the confessional. She still had mud and friction burns all over her body.
"Ughh! I don't want to lose this! We're on such a good winning streak! I've evaded elimination so many times so far! Just because Noah said he's thinking of voting out Heather doesn't mean he's gonna be on my side. Hell, like LeShawna revealed yesterday, she could throw me under the bus for her own safety like she apparently did to Beth. If she's capable of doing that once, she's definitely capable of doing it again."
(End Confessional: Gwen)
The camera switched back to Harold stretching before hopping onto the red skis. Heather was already on the jetski, revving up the vehicle.
Chris yelled through the megaphone. "Prepare yourselves! Go!"
The vehicle accelerated instantly as Heather stomped on the pedal similarly to Duncan, causing the lankier skier to fall off the red skis and slide across the muddy arena.
"Ow!" He whined as Heather smirked confidently back at the dork.
She accelerated past the muddy ramp quickly, unaware that Harold still was able to grab the red flags despite his painful traversal.
Heather zoomed around the course recklessly while Harold just barely grabbed the rest of the flags.
The second red flag.
Then the third.
Then the fourth.
And finally the fifth.
"And Harold has all of the flags! Harold just has to hold on while Heather reaches the finish line and he'll win this for the bass!"
The four bass on the sidelines collectively cheered for Harold as Gwen anxiously looked at the duo.
Courtney hugged Duncan tight. Her team was finally going to break their losing streak.
Duncan was surprise but gave into the hug before the CIT pushed the delinquent off of her.
Heather perked up with surprise before looking behind her to see Harold gripping onto the ropes.
"What! Arghhh!" She whined before continuing to drive recklessly, desperately thinking of a plan.
(Confessional: Heather)
The mean girl was clearly annoyed, crossing her arms.
"I had no way of cutting him lose, I mean, I had no way of getting a knife to cut off that rope. That nerd was just… urgh… I'm not proud of what I did."
(End Confessional: Heather)
The queen bee bit her lip before turning around on the jetski.
"Game over here, geek!" Heather exclaimed loudly.
"Victory is… huh?" The dweeb looked up at the mean girl.
Heather clenched her eyes shut before she pulled up her burgundy crop top to reveal her glorious badonkadonks to the nerd.
Harold simply had no words to respond, completely stunned at the stunt before he collided painfully with a rock, losing all of the flags.
The campers' jaws all collectively dropped as they witnessed the kerfuffle with their very eyes.
Heather quickly pulled her top down as soon as she knew that she was safe and drove to the finish line.
"And Harold loses control! The Bass gets zilch! That's the fourth victory in a row for the gophers!" Chris gleefully announced.
Harold quickly grew out of his daze and stood up from the mud slide, caressing his aching head.
"Heather, that was absolutely insane! Our audiences are going to go-"
The mean girl clenched the host's shirt. Several interns immediately grabbed their guns and aimed it at Heather.
Heather scowled intensively at the host before blowing up in his face. "I fucking hate you."
Chris shugged smugly. "You wanna rethink yourself? There are plenty of cameramen with guns aimed at what you just exposed."
Heather scowled before dropping the host and storming off.
(Confessional: Heather)
The mean girl scowled angrily at the camera.
"This fucking game reeks! I… had to show of my tits to that dweeb! To the whole viewing world! Just so that I can likely die next week!"
Heather punched the side of the confessional wall before quickly wiping a small tear leaking from her eye.
"At… at least I get to live for another day, huh?"
She scowled again, trying to hold herself back from crying on camera.
"Why do I even talk to this? So you fucking pieces of shit can watch me cry?"
The mean girl flipped the middle finger at the camera.
"Is this all that I am to you? Am I just the sexy evil teenager? The mean girl? Do none of you fucking care about that I'm gonna fucking die? FUCK YOU!"
The mean girl started weeping before she punched the camera to static.
(End Confessional: Heather)
The camera switched back to Chris smugly smiling.
"Well! We can finally have a proper execution ceremony after three whole days of waiting! Sheesh is our audience anticipating this! Anyways-"
"Dammit, Harold!" Courtney scolded as the dweeb slid back off the mud course.
"Shit." Harold muttered, preparing for the CIT to go absolutely berserk on him.
"Can't anybody do anything right on our team? Why are you more disfunctional than Chris's penis!"
"Hey!" Chris pathetically whined.
"Get your fucking head in the game!" The CIT stepped forward to tower of the shriveling dweeb, tapping her skull as if Harold was braindead.
"Courtney, calm down, eh! You're acting as if you're crazy!" Zeke said, coming to defend his friend.
The overachiever snapped her neck back to face the homeschooler. "Crazy? Are you kidding me right now?"
She stepped forward to confront the bad breathed boy. "I'm the only one who can get a point on my team! Harold loses because he can't contain his horniness for Heather and I'm being barraged because I'm 'going crazy?' I'm one of the only fucking people on my team taking this whole death thing seriously! People are dying Zeke, you can't just excuse yourself with your whole excuse of righteousness or whatever!"
The prairie boy stood up for himself. "It's not an excuse, eh! It's not good to become more unhinged! You're losing your morality!"
"Yeah," Courtney scoffed, "Maybe it doesn't look good for me by whatever narrative Chris is trying to set, I'm the bad guy or whatever, but I'm trying to survive here and I'm not backing down from it."
The prairie boy stuttered. "Courtney, I know you don't wanna repress your morality, eh, I can tell you're upset about Bridgette-"
"Oh my God, what did I say? Don't mention her name ever again, okay? I don't care about Bridgette anymore. Bridgette is dead and that's what matters."
The CIT frowned intensely at the homeschooler before looking around her to see everyone staring at her with complete surprise, including Duncan.
She groaned before storming off, leaving an awkward silence behind.
"Uhh…" Chris awkwardly mumbled. For the first time, he had completely forgotten what he had written down for his quippy script.
"Gophers win again. Bass…" He quickly recollected his showbiz voice. "You're losing another competitor for the fourth time in a row!"
Tyler and Duncan both looked at each other.
(Confessional: Duncan)
The delinquent leaned forward.
"Well this is hopeless. I don't want Courtney to go, but if it comes down to it, it's better for her to be the one going."
(End Confessional: Duncan)
The awkward silence had dispersed as Noah and Justin walked back to the mess hall to grab dinner.
"So, uh, it's a good thing we're not voting anybody out, huh?" Noah looked back at the anti-him. Despite being the complete opposite of Noah in personality and physique, the two of them surprisingly got along quite well as allies.
"Yup, although, I do think we should talk with Katie about potentially getting rid of Heather the next time we lose." Justin pointed out before looking around to realize that Katie was nowhere in sight.
"Uhh… speaking of which, where is she? I thought she was stuck with you."
Noah shrugged. "She said she wanted to be left alone the last time I saw her, but now that you mention it, I didn't see her at the mud ski challenge."
Justin's pretty eyes widened with alarm. "Uh. I really feel like you shouldn't have let her out of your sight, you know. Especially with the whole Bridgette thing that happened yesterday…"
Noah staggered. "Yeah, well, Katie wouldn't do that… At least… Okay, where the hell is she. We need to find her immediately."
The two of them began frantically looking around. Justin peered through the mess hall windows where he spotted every camper besides Katie.
Meanwhile, Noah ran off to the cabins and barged through the door in a panic.
She wasn't in the guys side, obviously so Noah ran over to the girl's cabin before quickly opening the door.
He immediately looked inside where he saw Katie sitting on her bed looking down at her hands.
"Katie, put the knife down." Noah instructed.
The lonely BFFFL had a knife in her hands. She stared down at it while it gleamed with light. Noah had no idea how she got her hands on the shiny knife but he had no time to theorize.
"Katie, put the knife down." Noah steadily walked towards the Malaysian girl, noticing how teary her eyes were. Noah was careful not to make any sudden moves.
Katie looked up at Noah, finally acknowledging his appearance with rapid thoughts moving through her head.
"Don't do anything drastic Katie, you're in no condition to act."
Katie breathed heavily as thoughts of Sadie zoomed through her mind.
She met Sadie when she was only five years old, having recently moved into her town with Sadie being her next-door neighbor.
Sadie instantly welcomed her. She was completely shy before she met Sadie. Through Sadie, she was able to grow out of her shell and spend every day of their lives together.
And now she was gone. Because Katie had acted selfishly. She acted for herself. She abandoned Sadie.
"I… really miss her…" Katie choked out with a sob, still gripping her knife close to her body.
Noah gulped. "I kn- know you do, Katie, but please put down the knife. It's not your fault at all."
Katie breathed heavily more. She picked up her knife and held it in front of her.
"I miss her so much, Noah. Wh- why would you do that?" Katie's mind was racing.
"What- I didn't do anything, Katie, please just set down the knife. Sadie wouldn't want you to harm yourself."
"Sadie wouldn't have wanted me to harm anybody. You're the reason she's gone… You made me do all of those things."
"Katie, you're not making any sense; you're not well. Put down the knife."
"I'm not listening to you anymore… You're the reason that Cody is gone. That Beth is gone. You've done so much wrong."
Noah's stomach began twisting.
"I… no, that's not true, Katie," Noah lied through his teeth as his stomach began twisting more. He felt needles crawling up along the back of his skin. The bookworm bit his lip to try to relieve himself.
"I don't want to do any of this anymore, please, let me… do this…"
"Katie… Sadie wouldn't have wanted you to do any of this. I don't want you to do this, please."
Katie furrowed her brow in anger.
"Since when did you care about anybody here? All that you've been since you landed here is a ruthless schemer. I know who you really are… you don't care…"
Noah finally snapped.
"You… you think I don't care? Of course, I care! I killed DJ and Eva. I'm the reason that Cody and Beth are dead. I even remember all of their names, their faces so well."
"I've been working behind the scenes this entire time as a weasel to do horrible things. Do you really think that I don't care about that? I have all of that on my conscious and the only thing I can do is suck it up and try to move on."
"I know for a fact that these… these imbeciles watching just love me on camera. They're gonna compliment my villainy as a 'great antagonist mastermind' and 'he's such an interesting villain.' But I'm not a great mastermind. I just want to survive and I hate what I have to do to do so."
"You really think that I'm that horrible? That I don't care about what I did to DJ? Or Eva? Or Cody? Or Beth?"
"Of couse I do! And I can't stand the fact that I'll be judged for this in the eyes of the audience despite how horrible our situation here is."
"But I care about you, Katie, I've spent so much time looking over you ever since Sadie died, I don't want you to die, please. I wonder sometimes if my parents or siblings back home have even realized that I've gone missing or if they even care. Just, please put the knife down, Katie. I don't want you to die."
Katie stuttered before looking back down at her knife.
"Look at yourself, Katie, you're bleeding, please don't end up like Bridgette, neither Sadie nor I want you to end up like that."
Katie sobbed and dropped the knife to the floor.
Noah immediately rushed over and gave Katie a huge hug.
"Don't worry, Katie, I'll fix everything, I promise. I'll change."
Katie hugged back tightly, crying into Noah's arms.
Chris and a couple of interns barged into the room suddenly, with the two contestants looking at the door.
"OK, thank you Noah for not letting Katie kill herself. It would be a real darn shame if we couldn't have another execution ceremony."
Noah and Katie both remained quiet, looking at Chris and then each other.
"Katie, uh, normally I'd reprimand you for having a knife, but since you didn't use it on anybody and you're already on the rocks, plus I don't really want to interfere with the game as much anymore, you're off the hook. Consider yourselves lucky."
The interns confiscated the knife that Katie had before exiting the room along with Chris.
"I'm here for you, okay?" Noah reassured Katie before returning her hug.
(Confessional: Noah)
The bookworm sat in the confessional scratching the back of his neck.
"I… uh… I kinda broke down there. I'm happy that I get to keep Katie as an ally for now, she's uh… anyway."
The schemer frowned at himself.
"I want to be done being the schemer, but I know that I can't. I'll just have to suck it up until I get out of here, but I'll try to stop playing underhandedly. Only if it absolutely comes to it."
(End Confessional: Noah)
(Confessional: Katie)
The twiggy bestie entered the confessional for the first time in a long while.
"I haven't been here in a long while. I… have a lot in my head right now, but I really appreciate that Noah's looking out for me. I would've… made a mistake back there…"
Katie took in a deep breath before the camera turned to static.
(End Confessional: Katie)
The camera panned down from the evening sky as Tyler barged out of the mess hall after dinner, thinking to himself.
He spotted Duncan sitting on the porch of the cabin and took in a deep breath.
The words Zeke advised him lingered in his mind: Make up for your mistakes, eh.
"Ahem." Tyler coughed as he walked to the porch of the cabin.
"What do you want, Tyler." Duncan greeted.
"I, uh." Tyler looked down at the floorboards. "I wanted to say thank you for not hurting me yesterday morning."
The juvie raised his unibrow. "Is that all?"
"I, uh, also wanted to apologize."
Duncan silently waited for Tyler to continue.
"I wanted to apologize for… what I did to Geoff and what happened with Bridgette."
"Which is…" Duncan pursued.
"I want to apologize for killing Geoff and that I indirectly caused Bridgette to kill herself, okay?"
Duncan sighed. He knew Tyler was going to do something like this eventually.
"I feel horrible about what happened to them. I never intended for anything like that to happen. But I know that it's my fault and I accept that. I'm so so so sorry."
A part of Duncan wanted to forgive Tyler despite how much Tyler had wronged him. He knew that Tyler made a mistake, but at the same time he knew that he couldn't.
Tyler was the reason that Geoff was dead, and was a good chunk of the reason Bridgette was too. And on top of all of that, he knew his brother would not approve.
"I know one way that I can forgive you." Duncan coughed.
Tyler excitedly raised an eyebrow. "What is it? I really want to make up for my mistakes, Duncan, please."
The delinquent thought for a second.
"I need you to vote for Harold tonight."
Tyler's smile quickly dispersed.
"I- I really can't do that. I'm not breaking my loyalty to my bros."
Duncan leaned back into his lawn chair.
"Dang. Then, I'll never forgive you, Tyler. You'll never make it right unless you vote off Harold, alright?"
(Confessional: Tyler)
The jock sighed in the confessional.
"I really can't do that. Why does Duncan have to make this so difficult. I want to make up for my mistake- the fact that I killed Geoff on accident - desperately."
Tyler tugged on his hair as the camera turned to static.
(End Confessional: Tyler)
The camera panned down from the sky as five pairs of legs walked to the elimination ceremony, soon to be four.
Chris smiled and entered on the right side of the screen with the tray of marshmallows in his hand.
The five Killer Bass members exchanged anxious looks together as they sat down on their stumps. Courtney and Duncan were in the top row and Tyler, Harold, and Ezekiel were in the row in front of them.
"Killer Bass!" The host greeted. "What happened? Last execution ceremony a total of eight of you walked here! Now exactly half of that will be leaving tonight's ceremony! Four losses in a row must be tough!"
Duncan gave a bored posture as his gaze switched from the tray of marshmallows to Courtney's stiff posture.
"Just get it on with!" She said hastily, upset at her teammates.
Chris scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I can tell someone is eager! It's been three whole days and our audience has been aching for a real ceremony!"
The host grabbed the first marshmallow on the tray as both Courtney and Duncan eyed it intensely.
"Who's ready to see some blood!" Chris gleefully announced.
"The first marshmallow of the night goes too…
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…Courtney!" The CIT gave a smug smile of relief. Duncan exhaled nervously as Courtney jabbed her stick through the gooey treat and walked to the safe zone.
Out of the corner of the juvie's eyes, he could see Harold squinting at him.
The dweeb's opinion didn't matter anymore as Duncan broke into a cold sweat.
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…Duncan!" The host surprisingly blurted. "You're safe as well!"
An alarmed Duncan immediately stood up, with Harold jolting up in shock a second later.
"Wait what? All three of us voted for Duncan! How does that even… Tyler!" The dweeb's voice broke as he jerked his head towards the jock sitting to his right.
The clumsy sporto had a similar face of confusion, unable to speak.
Harold looked to the left where he saw Ezekiel confused.
"I thought we all voted for Duncan, eh!" The prairie boy mumbled.
Chris chirpily tossed a marshmallow over to the delinquent who catches it and kisses it before chewing it down.
"I counted two votes for Duncan and three votes for… well you're about to find out, so one of you probably messed up!" The host gave a cocky grin.
Tyler stood up and gave a furious look, before pointing accusatory at Chris. "No! No way, bro! This can not be happening!"
The jock looked at his two adversaries in the safe zone and points at them accusingly.
"They cheated in some way! There's no way that-"
"Tyler! Sit!" Chris instructed as the jock meekly obeys.
An offended CIT frowned as Tyler accused her.
"Don't blame us!" She blurted back only to be cut off by the host. "DON'T INTERRUPT THE NAIL-BITING TENSION HERE!" Chris took a deep breath before quieting down.
"I… can't believe it worked!" She whispered to Duncan.
The host contemplated picking another marshmallow before shrugging and tossing the tray back on the oil barrel.
"Ah, what the heck, the tension is high enough. I'll just cut to the chase!"
Harold's confusion turned into nervousness as he sat in his seat, biting on his nails as Chris soaked in the tension.
Tyler worryingly eyed the marshmallow before looking at Courtney and Duncan. The former turns her head away. He gritted his teeth and clenched his stick nervously as he looked back at Chris.
Ezekiel clenched his cross necklace as he stared dryly at the tray.
"The Stooge that will not be receiving an immunity marshmallow and be alive to see another day is…
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…Ezekiel! Time for you to hit for the highway to the afterlife, dude!" Chris smirked as he quickly grabbed the two marshmallows on the oil barrel and tossed it to Harold and Tyler.
The camera panned close to the prairie boy, whose eyes widened and quickly turned his head to face left where his two friends were given marshmallows.
"Oh God, bro…" Tyler said in conflicted relief.
"Gosh!" Harold said in conflicted relief as well.
The homeschooler sighed sadly and shrugged.
"I guess the time has come, eh. I mean I wasn't really expecting it to be today, but…"
He gave a weak smile before a small tear leaked out of his eye. He stopped clenching his cross and opened his eyes.
His two friends came to the prairie boy's side as Harold stood up in protest.
"Seriously though, how does that work!" Harold asked frustratingly, his voice breaking down. "All three of us voted for Duncan!"
The delinquent grumbled as Chris shrugged unknowingly. "I don't know, dude, you're asking the wrong host."
"I demand a recount! Gosh! There's no way three of us voted for Zeke!" Harold nasally plead as he approached the host who stepped back and grabbed his handgun.
"Slow down, dweebo, Zeke's getting the boot right here, right now, unless you want to take a step closer and take his place instead!"
The dweeb grumbled before retreating back to where Zeke and Tyler stood. Chef Hatchet arrived at the host's side and gave him a crossbow with a quiver filled with arrows alongside it.
"Archer execution for the archer himself!" Chris excitingly announced.
"Harold, it's fine, I've accepted my fate ever since I got here. I was never supposed to get out of here alive, but I fulfilled my duty here. I'll have eternal life with the Lord soon, eh." He placed a calming hand on Harold's shoulder before facing the host.
"Can I just say goodbye, eh?" Zeke plead, tears nearly dripping out of his eyes.
"Yeah, sure. It's more content after all." The host fumbled more with the crossbow as his voice faded quietly. "How do you work this thing…"
Zeke nodded somberly as he looks up to his two friends.
"Tyler, Harold, thank you so much for being great people. I truly hope that both of you make it out of here alive."
"Tyler, you've made a lot of mistakes, but you still mean well. Don't die without clearing up for your sins."
"Thanks, Zeke." Tyler hugged the short prairie boy.
"Harold, don't lose yourself in favor of survival instinct, eh. You're smart. Keep yourself and Tyler safe." Harold tearfully nodded before wiping away his face.
The prairie boy took off his blue toque and gave it to the dweeb, letting his shaggy hair fall just over his eyes. He placed his blue toque onto Harold's red hair.
He turned around and faced Duncan and Courtney, who were awkwardly standing in the safe zone.
"Duncan, Courtney, same thing, don't lose yourself in the pursuit of survival instincts. You two can be better than that. Don't push down your morals, eh."
He turned to face Courtney one last time, just a few meters away from the uptight CIT.
"Don't lose yourself in survival, and don't push away your thoughts about-"
THWUNK
In an instance, the prairie boy was hit by the crossbow's arrow, piercing through the back of his head, through his brain, and out his left eye.
The prairie boy fell to the ground with a thud as blood sprayed from his head to all over Courtney's clothes.
The delinquent cursed as Courtney was splattered with red. Tyler and Harold both flinched.
Ezekiel died painlessly. He lay quietly on the grass with an arrow piercing the back of his skull and with blood pooling from his head.
The perfectionist froze up as drops of blood splattered across her shirt, slowly zoning back in as she blinked.
"That's how you work a crossbow!" Chris said in his flashy show biz voice. "Man is this thing harder than it looks!"
Courtney blinked a couple more times before raising her hand to touch where the prairie boy's blood had stained her shirt.
"You're in a better place now, Zeke…" Tyler somberly said as a tear came out of his eye.
A couple of interns showed up on the scene with body bags to take away the corpse.
Harold frustratingly kicked one of the seating stumps over before pointing at Courtney and Duncan.
"None of this makes sense! We finally get an advantage and Ezekiel still gets eliminated! He was the only good one here! Why did he have to die?" The dweeb's voice began cracking up as the delinquent bit his lip.
"Tssh… I have no idea, dude…"
Harold furrowed his brow and advanced accusatory towards Duncan. "Don't give me that bullshit! I know that you've had to do something! You fucking cheated, dickhead!"
Duncan snapped back. "Hey, fuck you Harold! You wanna know what's really cheating? The fact that your retarded friend over there killed Geoff! I'm not fucking stupid just because I'm some delinquent! I know that you were parading over Bridgette's suicide!"
Duncan leaned forward, towering over the scrawny nerd. "Don't act like you're the morally better one here, because all that you are is a little hypocritical shit!"
The delinquent shoved the dweeb to the ground. Tyler quickly responded by trying to catch Harold, only to trip over his own shoelaces.
Harold weakly looks back at the juvie from the ground and scowls.
(Confessional: Harold)
The dweeb wiped his teary face, annoyed and frustrated at Ezekiel's death. Even with the differences they had about morality, Ezekiel was truly the only honorable one left on the island, the one who deserved to live the most.
Harold held onto Zeke's toque before putting it on.
"I mean GOSH! I just! I just, like, GOD!" His voice breaks up and he wipes anxious tears out of his eyes. "Duncan is a complete dickhead for cheating! Ezekiel should be alive and Duncan should be dead! It's just not fair… it's just not fair…"
(End Confessional: Harold)
(Confessional: Duncan)
The delinquent scowled as he pointed threateningly at the camera.
"You know, Harold has been a real asshole lately! He's a complete fucking hypocrite! Tyler kills off Geoff and indirectly Bridgette, yet Harold has the nerve to say that I cheated? That I killed Zeke?"
He scoffed and gazed up to nowhere.
"That's fucking it, no more Mr. Nice Guy from me. I gotta do what my brother would! If Harold thinks I'm gonna play hard, then I'll show him how hard I'll play!"
(End Confessional: Duncan)
The host smiled as Duncan stormed off with Tyler and Harold following suit in the other direction.
Courtney still stood in the same spot as she had ever since Ezekiel had been shot right in front of her. She blinked a couple more times before silently walking off the scene and to the confessional.
(Confessional: Courtney)
Courtney ripped toilet paper off the roll and wiped the blood that stained her shirt.
"I… I can't believe that worked…"
She wiped her shirt once more, looking at the redness of the toilet paper before tossing it down the confessional toilet.
"I don't know if that was the right move though, I mean… I have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow… I just pray that the merge is right around the corner…"
She silently thought for a couple more seconds.
"You know what? What's happened has happened and it's now behind me. None of that matters anymore and I just have to focus on staying alive."
Courtney..? Courtney..?
(End Confessional: Courtney)
Voting Confessionals?
The camera flashed to Courtney looking down at a box in her lap. She took out a screwdriver - one which the host had no idea how she got - and began opening the voting box.
"I know that this is a risky play… But what choice do I have? The three Bass dudes are either going to vote of Duncan, leaving me with no allies… or vote off me…"
After the box popped open, Courtney let an upset groan.
"Ugh! Why did we have to lose four times in a row? Then I wouldn't have to be doing this… We were in such a good position! I had my allies, Bridgette and Geoff still alive… Why didn't I do anything when Geoff was adamant about being the Head Chef?"
Courtney grabbed 5 slips of paper that were inside of the box and replaced them with another set of five pieces of paper.
"This is it…" She said as the five rigged voting papers were placed inside the voting box.
"Why Ezekiel? Well… it's easy if you think about it… he's actually competent and can be an underhanded threat in the merge… he has a good social game and people like him, which can prove to be a problem… he seems smarter…
Who are you kidding, Courtney? A familiar voice internally asked Courtney.
Courtney paused for a couple of seconds, before blinking, abruptly shutting the box closed.
"And… uh… he kept reminding me about Bridgette. That really bothered me…"
Courtney pursed her lips and placed the voting box down on the countertop in front of her.
A soothing voice was heard.
You know that you're losing yourself, Courtney. Stop playing God.
(End Confessional: Courtney)
(The Real) Voting Confessionals:
Harold: "Yes! We finally have the advantage!" He smiled proudly. "I saw boobies today and I'm finally able to eliminate Duncan! He's just a complete dick, and I have no idea how he can be so… cruel in a place like this!"
Courtney: "So we lost today again…" She bit her lip and looked down at the floorboards. "All I can hope is that what I did… works and that I won't get punished too much for it…" She looked back up at the camera. "Ugh… It was stupid of me to rig it against Ezekiel over Harold or Tyler…"
Ezekiel: The prairie boy fumbled his fingers together. "Eh… I didn't get through to Courtney's problems today… maybe I'll get through to them tomorrow? She seems really upset to talk about Bridgette, I can tell that she feels a bit responsible about it… Anyways, I vote for Duncan, eh, he's been actin' like a jerk ever since we got to this island."
Duncan: "Gah… I was hoping that we'd actually win this one… Now those three dweebs are going to vote me off…" Duncan takes a deep breath. "All I can do is hope that they vote off Courtney instead. Or if somehow convinced Tyler… All I can say is that the struggle is intense right now. I vote for Harold." He sighed again. "Sorry bro, I failed you…"
Ezekiel: (1 Vote): (Courtney): (Rigged Out)
Harold: (1 Vote): (Duncan)
Duncan: (3 Votes): (Ezekiel, Harold, Tyler)
Screaming Gophers: Heather, Noah, Katie, Justin, LeShawna, Gwen
Killer Bass: Tyler, Harold, Duncan, Courtney
24: Owen
23: Izzy
22: DJ
21: Lindsay
20: Trent
19: Eva
18: Cody
17: Beth
16: Sadie
15: Geoff
14: Bridgette
13: Ezekiel
Final Words: "Don't lose yourself in survival, and don't push away your thoughts about-"
Why was Zeke eliminated?
Another heavily rooted for contestant is gone. And another Bass member, I bet you weren't expecting that! Anyways, Zeke, similarly to Despair Island was the shepherd of the Bass, helping DJ, Eva, Beth, Tyler, Bridgette, and eventually Courtney, which proved to be his biggest mistake. Sorry, Zeke, but no merge status for you!
Anyways, now you have your merge cast!
Harold, LeShawna, Gwen, Courtney, Tyler, Duncan, Heather, Katie, Justin, and Noah! Add in Sierra and Al and we'd get an interesting merge phase… (the early merge is so hard to write why).
First off, if the execution ceremony scene feels a bit off, it's probably because that scene was written 2 months before everything else in this chapter! I hope I didn't mess anything up there.
Sorry for the early hiatus! I planned to take it after releasing this chapter, but my laziness got the better of me. I was busy doing ACT stuff and getting ready for finals. I sincerely hope that the schedule will go back to it's normal 2 week intervals now it's gonna be January. I'm seriously starting to enjoy writing again and I'll try to write shorter chapters.
So what are your thoughts on the merge cast? What characters are you most interesting in seeing play out? How will Sierra and Al cause the story to rumble?
See you next time at the Brunch! Review as always!
-Lapizite