Author's Note: Due to this chapter's size, it will be divided into 2 parts. You're welcome.

Also, sorry for the wait. I have just been lacking in motivation to write for Total Drama lately. If anyone would like to be a co-writer for this story please let me know. I'm trying to finish this for you guys who are interested in reading this, I'm pleasantly surprised with how liked this story is and want to finish it.

It was but 48 hours after Sky's untimely passing, as the contestants received a notice from Chris that they had a single day off following the second challenge. On paper it seemed as though the showrunners had a shred of mercy within them, but in truth it was merely because they had to come up with plans for the rest of the 'season' challenges. Be that as it may, such plans were already made by the time the third challenge was ready to begin, with Chris now more enthusiastic about it than before while Chef remained silent.

However, Chris was not present at the dorm as the sun rose and all of the contestants began dreading what was coming - those forming a rebellion group knowing their time to be limited to escape.

Rather he was in the elimination room, in the area where all of the contestants normally would be gathered for the occasion. While it was not the horror of the room in which the deeds took place, it was still not precisely the pleasant room it seemed to be on the first day - it's atmosphere being tainted with what was the truth. It now had a dampness lurking all around it, the air becoming heavy and the room even when it had people within it always seemed to have a lingering silence as if the forces of hell itself were watching those within it. Though the latter could be considered to have truth in it considering that both Pertchgill and Misato standing in the flesh before the show's host. There was no sign of Cassandra however, which seemed to make Chris somewhat on edge as he approached the two subordinate producers - he tugged his shirt collar and expected some sort of reprimanding.

After all, the smile that Pertchgill had on his face did not seem to Chris like that of a good sign. Nonetheless, he approached them and shook both of their hands while starting a polite conversation:

"Pertchgill, Misato! What brings you guys here?"

"Cassandra is initiating the next major phase of her plan", Misato revealed bluntly, "She sent us to oversee your progress here personally."

"Oh."

"Do not worry, dear boy", Pertchgill let out with his cold, callous baritone voice, "We will let you do what you feel you must, so long as you get the job Cassandra wants done, though I would suggest you take our own more personal suggestions to heart as well."

"Thomas, I would suggest you keep those 'suggestions' in your own personal quarters", Misato scolded. It did not take long for Chris to be confused by what the two were talking about:

"Personal, Quarters?"

"It is none of your concern, McLean!" Thomas swiftly replied in a defensive tone, "Just do what we say and what Cassandra says and we all will continue to get along famously!"

"Well you can count on me, dude! Oh, and dudette!"

"Yes", Misato was not amused by the 'surfer lingo' Chris usually spoke with - being much of the 'old fashioned' type, "There are some things that make me admittedly, doubt that."

"Like, what?"

"You're attitude following the first elimination for example, coupled with how quick your turn around was. It is in all honesty a bit sudden for my personal taste."

"What? Are you kidding me? Look, I only had that turn around because Chef and I had this talk about by the dorm, I came to realize what I really cared about is all!"

"Which is?"

"My job, the money and my life of course!"

"Oh, so you don't care about Cassandra or Christmas?"

"Oh I care about them! Believe me I do! I just figured they went without saying!"

"Ha!" Pertchgill laughed, "Oh come now old boy, there's no reason to be ashamed! I never bothered to settle down with anyone, outside my personal wealth of course,and I have not thought a single thing of it! In this industry it's better to stick to the truth rather than to the lies we tell our audience! Though that said, your daughter is shaping up to be quite beautiful, so I will not fault you on settling down for the sake of creating her."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Nevermind him, McLean" Misato swiftly intervened, "He means nothing. Absolutely and most positively nothing!"

Even so in despite of what she has just said, Chris couldn't help but look on suspiciously at the smirking Thomas Pertchgill - albeit he shrugged and decided to forget that seemingly minor comment in favor of bringing up a subject entirely different to it. After some brief exchange of ideas inside of his mind he knew just what that subject ought to be:

"So, I gotta ask this before we go, but, what does Cassandra do with the, you know, bodies?"

"Bodies?"

"Um, well okay I know Beardo ain't got much left at this point but Sky was pretty intact! I'm just curious to know what my wife wants done with them, if killing them is apparently so important to her 'plan'."

"We're not entirely sure ourselves, or at least I am not" Misato admitted with a significantly less strict demeanor, "Though all I do know is that Cassandra wants the bodies, or whatever little does remain, transported to a location of her own choosing. She hasn't told us what this location is, however."

"So no funerals or nothin'?"

"No."

"The families are completely unaware", Pertchgill's face curled into something of a wicked grin at that point, "They don't suspect a thing."

"Heh", Chris put on a look of enjoyment at the prospect as he laughed alongside his two superiors, "We've sure outdone ourselves this time!"

"You mean we've outdone ourselves?" and Misato was quick to ruin Chris' somewhat pleasant mood with intimidation, "Not you. You had absolutely nothing to even do with it!"

Chris swallowed in response to that, though didn't show Misato the same fear that he shows when his wife snaps at him like that. Judging by the look on her own face it appears that even she recognized this - and that she wasn't necessarily happy about it. Regardless, Chris kept his tongue and simply nodded with a soft smile as silence overtook the three for at least half of a minute before finally Misato broke it once more:

"I believe we are done here now. Me and Thomas will be residing in the same place as you, that's all that really needs be said at this point."

"Though I will be making some rounds around the dorm here and there" Pertchgill added, "I like to be the more 'hands on' producer of us three, so to speak."

"Yes. The, hands on, one."

"So" Chris clapped his hands together with a relieved sigh, "Guess that's code for meeting over?"

"Well, not quite yet."

"What's up then?"

"Cassandra did not mention this as she believed it went without saying, but based on idle banter I've been hearing from the interns I feel you better avoid any potential threats of contestants trying to control the situation."

"Huh?"

"Must I spell it out for you?", Misato sighed, "Topher is not much of a threat, but we would much prefer not having to do your work for you by having another Scarlett incident on our hands!"

"None of these guys are even remotely like her though, and she's locked away in that nut house!"

"Thanks to our work she is! You had hardly a thing to even do with it, you merely shot her out of a cannon and ignored all else!"

"Excuse me!", Chris 'fired' back, "You guys pay me to host the show and the challenges that you guys make up, you don't pay me to handle the crap that goes on off-camera! That, and you're not my wife!"

"I can however inform her of this!"

"Friends, friends, let us be civil!" Pertchgill exclaimed as he got in between the two of them, putting a hand on either of their shoulders, "We're all on the same team here, after all. There is no need for such fighting! Especially over such a little thing, with it already settled! Why don't we focus on the matter at hand and go back to the game?"

"Very well" Misato glared angrily at Chris who glared just as angrily back at her, "The challenge is in but a few hours anyway."

"Yeah, and I'm the host of it" Chris reminded her, "So if you don't excuse me, I'm going to go prepare myself for the big show tonight."

"You mean today?"

"Same thing!"

It was after those words had been said that they parted ways, with Chris leaving the room. All that was on his mind was not concern for the poor soul to be eliminated later, but rather with mental imagery of his paycheck at the end of this whole thing. One would be forgiven for thinking there was a shred of humanity in his mind. Misato and Pertchgill merely looked to each other for a brief time before following after their 'host' not long after he'd already left the room. Just like him, the two of them felt as though things would be going on through the day without issue or interruption to their plans - they were at the moment unaware of what was actually in store for them.

"Outside the dorm first thing in the morning - BEFORE the sun rises."

That was all that they knew.

That was all that Jasmine and the others whom she had recruited had told to the various fellow competitors of those on the day before the rebellion.

By the time the morning had come, all that needed planning had been planned, and she knew that there was no time to waste any more. She needed to strike before Chris arrived to begin the challenge,and she knew that the hours of the morning that still resembled night were the perfect if not only time to rally everyone together.

While not an easy feat by any means, it was a feat that had been achieved through not only Jasmine but all of those working with her making a solid effort to make sure they did it. Every single one of the other remaining contestants - though with the sole exception of Amy - had been either forcibly or voluntarily gathered at the steps of the dormitory with Jasmine herself standing before them on the top step right in front of the door. Due to the time of day it was only natural that the vast majority of this gathering were dressed more in their sleepwear rather than the clothing they usually wore - thankfully those who usually slept in their underwear were allowed to put on robes before stepping out into the cold early morning.

There they all were: Heather, Alejandro, Sugar, Stephanie, Ryan, Scott, Jo, Lightning, Courtney, Izzy, Eva, Noah, Owen, Sierra, Cody, Junior, Kitty, Emma, Dawn, Ellody, Dave, Duncan, Gwen, Cameron, Mike, Zoey, Shawn, Samantha, Crimson, Ennui with Loki, Brick, B, Ella, Topher, Trent, Tyler, Lindsay, Beth, Katie, Sadie, Harold, Justin, Leonard, Tammy, Staci, Rodney, DJ, Geoff, Bridgette, Lorenzo, Chet and Anne Maria. All of them standing at the foot of the stairway as Jasmine stood above and in front of them all - and the reason became all too clear from the moment she began speaking in a firm, powerful voice:

"Contestants, I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you why you're here and I'm not going to bother repeating what they're trying to force us to go through. I know what happened to Sky was horrific and undeserved, it haunts me even now. I also know that many of you also want the million dollar prize, but most of all I want you all to hear me out right now! I want you all to think about one single thing, for those of you who value your lives at all do you honestly want to remain here for a single second and risk what happened to Sky happening to you? What if they go even more brutal than with her? For those of you who only care about the money, are you really going to settle for just some mere million dollars? Compared to how much we could make off of them if we escape and sue them for everything they've got or with you less-than-selfless ones blackmailing them?"

It was that comment that made the more villainous contestants such as Scott, Sugar, Jo and even the infamous Alejandro and Heather start thinking, all of them finding themselves skeptical at first though upon deeper thought they realized she was right. Their feelings of agreement were only however truly sealed during her next few words:

"And what do all of you even think's going to happen after we're through here?They're not going to let us speak up about this if that's what you're thinking! They're going to give you the million to shut you up if they even let you live at all! Cassandra, that dragon lady bitch running this thing, is the prime minister now; she has more than enough resources at her disposal to silence us, especially if we're only one person going up against her word! But if we're united against her I think we might just have a chance of pulling this off, if we work together!"

On that note the others, from even Jo to Eva, either silently nodded in agreement to her words or softly agreed to them. There was no question that she was completely and totally correct in what she was saying.

"They think that they can just play a game with us like they always have. They tricked us with those other seasons, making us think all they did was put us through physical and endurance strain, what they're expecting is that all of us would gladly sabotage each other to save our own lives! However they forgot one thing, and it's that we're humans. They probably watch those movies where crime was made illegal for a single day each year and think that's how we'd operate in this situation, but no! Hell no! Humans don't just want to kill each other when they're put in a situation like this, especially not this one! Not when we still have the other options wide open to us! Like in the wild, it's either fight or flight. Normally I'd be more than happy to fight, but in this situation we need to do some flight!"

"And how do we do that?", Duncan asked with a sarcastic smirk on his face despite agreeing with all of it himself, "It's not like all of us can just sprout wings and fly."

Eva was quick to sternly speak to him:

"If you would shut up and let her speak maybe she was about to get to that!"

Duncan was silenced after that point, and Jasmine and Eva both exchanged nods to one another before Jasmine continued:

"The plan is for all of us to gather together at one of the island's shores. Me and Shawn were able to map out the whole place during the day we had no challenges, all we have to do to avoid danger is to stay clear of the mountains, stick together, don't split up no matter what, and get to the eastern shore of the island. Once there, we will work on a boat big enough to hold all fifty-three all of us and once that's done we head out for the pacific."

"Hold up, hold up, hold UP!" this time Gwen was the one who interrupted Jasmine, all of the others turning to face her, "Okay, I know I was there with all of you guys...for a few seconds...and I agree with the not splitting up part definitely, but a boat big enough for all of us? The pacific? Where are we headed for, Japan?"

"I agree with her on that" Heather added in, "I don't recall my grandparents having fifty-three guest rooms."

"No, we're not headed for Japan" Jasmine explained, "We're going to go east until we're far enough from the shore, then head northward for Alaska. There's no way any of us would be able to make it all the way to Japan. Once we're in America and out of this mess, what you guys do is up to you. If you wanna help me bring the bitch down, good. If you want to go home and forget about this, I understand. Hell, if you want to take whatever she bribes you with to shut up, fine! Frankly if any of you want to stay here and try winning whatever 'million' they say they're gonna give you, so be it. But I'm not gonna stay around here to be one of their playthings anymore. Just saying it now, but if you want to try your luck with Cassandra, now's your time to speak up about it!"

None of the others uttered a single word after that. Not Noah nor Emma, nor even a single one of the so-called 'villains'. All of them felt the same thing - not only was it better for survival to escape, but the funds they could make from doing so were far more viable than whatever prize the show could give them. In addition, they wouldn't be haunted with the thought of being a 'murderer'. As such there was little to no contest against Jasmine's plan of action, not a single person disagreed with this. Having expected this the only words she finished off with were easy:

"That's what I thought."

Just as Jasmine descend from the steps to join the others though, it was not long before one of them questioned her inclusion of such a large assortment of people. The questioner, as if naturally, was none other than Noah:

"Can I ask one question?" he brought attention to himself with, "Why are we including people like resident mood swinger and resident evil douchebag in this? If we're ignoring the hosts' favourite which I get, why keep them around?"

"I'm assuming that the evil douchebag in question is me?" Alejandro asked, a brow raised though his face anything but amused.

"Congratulations, you guessed correctly."

"Hmph."

"Noah brings up a good point!" Sierra spoke up, "Dave is a complete raving lunatic, plus he played a large part in killing Sky!"

"I didn't kill her!" Dave screamed with tears forming in his eyes, but Sierra only looked at him coldly as she said:

"You betrayed her."

"Sierra, that's enough!" Jasmine said with hands on her hips as she glared at the purple haired girl, being the only female to tower even over her, "Yes, Dave has done some wrong things and I was on Sky's side too, but he had no way of knowing she'd actually die! Like all of us he probably thought it was fake what Bridgette said at first!"

"I didn't think it was real! I thought it would be fake with actors! I don't want to be a murderer! Honest! Please, I just want to get off this island! Don't abandon me again!"

Dave sat down on the ground and got into a fetal position at first, tears forming in his eyes as he buried his face yet again into his knees to begin sobbing. This move actually got him looks of sympathy from the likes of Dawn, Ella, Cody, Topher and Mike among others. Lindsay in particular spoke up about it:

"Seems like he's pretty genuinely sorry to me" she said, "I think we've all been a bit mean to him. Like, treating him like we're that mean blonde girl."

"I still think Sky was right about him" Shawn added in, "But I'm with my girl on that he still doesn't deserve being left behind. Not this time, anyway."

"Agreed!" Dawn decided to add in as she neared Dave, kneeling down to show him comfort - which he did not resist, "Dave's aura has been nothing but sincere since Sky's untimely demise, I don't sense any chance that he would even think about betraying us!"

"Oh you've got to be kidding me, auras" Noah rolled his eyes, though Emma nudged him for his remarks. It was clear that he wanted to berate Dawn for her belief in auras again, though instead he decided to bring up a different subject thanks to Emma, "Well, alright, I guess bringing Dave along with be passable, but what about the evil douchebag?"

"I say we should leave him with Amy!" Cody yelled out as he also sat beside Dave opposite of Dawn, "He almost got me killed by sharks and didn't care one bit about it! How do we know he wouldn't care about sending any one of us to our own deaths? For all we know, he could even be here as a mole for Cassandra or something!"

"My sentiments exactly!" Justin nodded, "If I were an evil bitch like Cassandra and I wanted a contestant on the inside, Alejandro would make the most sense!"

"Thank you, Justin!"

"Oh please" Alejandro scowled at both of them, "One of you two is just holding a childish grudge, and the other one is only jealous of my superior looks."

"Excuse me?" Justin took severe offense to that and glared at Alejandro for 'daring' to say it, "First off, me and you are practically the same body build. Secondly, at least I have more actual friends than you do so I'd watch what you say!"

"Yeah, and Cody's friends with both of us too!" Trent spoke up, folding his arms as he angrily glared at Alejandro while he also walked up to Justin's side. It didn't take long for Harold to join him on Justin's other side, sharing his sentiment towards the spaniard:

"And don't think I haven't forgotten what you did to get me and LeShawna off, either!" Harold said with disdain and contempt in his voice.

"You tell him, guys!" Cody quipped in, a glare of his own attempting yet failing to pierce into Alejandro's soul. Alejandro the whole while couldn't help but be severely irritated by all of his hatred directed towards him - hatred that he had no way of possibly diverting. What they were saying was true, of course - minus the part about being a mole. They had reason to hate and distrust him, but he couldn't risk being left behind with Amy - he knew he would take her in a fair challenge, but with how Chris favours her it is more than likely she would get an advantage against him. There was also the possibility that there wasn't even an intended winner at all in a game like this, and that was a possibility Alejandro did not want to gamble on.

"Amigos" he tried to follow in his father's footsteps and approach them diplomatically, "Please, I know that I have done far...less than friendly things with many of you, but I assure you that in a situation such as this I will gladly but my treacherous ways aside for the greater good! Besides, I have something at stake too." and then he pulled Heather close to him with one hand, "In case you may have forgotten."

"Seriously!" Heather angrily exclaimed to all of them, "As IF Alejandro would side with that hell beast over ME! You guys need to seriously get over it, especially since I know, or at least thought, that some of you were better than this!"

"You know you're just as much able to be left behind, right?" Trent snarked, "Considering that for all we know, you two are working together with them and against all of us!"

"What?! Are you serious?! Do you really think I'd associate with someone like that? Okay, no, I'm not the nicest person or the most trustworthy, but I would never actually murder someone!"

"Could've fooled me."

"Heather, look" Cody then surprised everyone as he temporarily broke the anger and spoke to the woman directly, "I know you love the guy, even though I think you could do better, but you can't deny that we're being reasonable here! He literally threw me into shark infested waters, felt not a single bit sorry about it, and could've killed me! In a situation like this you have to see what we're saying here!"

"Oh, I see what you're saying alright! You're saying we should just abandon my boyfriend and leave him to die! All because you people don't know how to let shit go!"

"You know we could just leave you behind too, right?" Gwen brought up with disdain of her own for the asian before her, "It's not like you've ever been that much more trustable than him!"

"Gwen has a perfect point" Courtney confessed, "I have had my moments I admit, but not nearly as many 'moments' as you."

Scott couldn't help but snicker and roll his eyes at that comment, his opinions on it being without needing to be said. Courtney looked at him for his outburst, but he had no remorse about it even with her sneering at him - he even sneered right back at her.

"Please, Courtney" Heather brought attention back onto herself not long after, "I don't need to be talked down to by you of all people, and the same I can say to the goth girl too! Me and Alejandro aren't the ones considering leaving people behind to get murdered by whatever the fuck those executioners even are! Maybe you all should think about that instead of what we did during a fucking competition!"

Just then the sound of a whistle was heard by all of those present, turning all of them over to where the sound came from - none other than Jo herself who was more determined than ever to put an end to the arguing. Once she was sure she had everyone's attention, she opened her mouth and firmly spoke to everyone:

"Alright everyone that's enough!" she let out, "A lot of us are guilty of doing bad shit to each other in the past, alright? Even myself for christ's sake! But are we really going to waste time arguing about it when we could be on our way to getting out of this mess already? If anyone wants to stay behind, so be it! I myself would rather get outta here and make the bitch doing this pay a lot more than just one million bucks for this crap, but if you disagree then good riddance!"

"Jo's right!" Jasmine agreed with a nod and a loud voice of her own, "We probably only have a few minutes left now to leave, if even that! Way I see it, we should start moving now, and only if any one of you causes trouble will we have to make the choice to let you go!"

Nobody made any vocal response to that, as all of them knew that what she and Jo had just said was completely true. For the time being, everyone put their grudges aside and though distrustful glares were exchanged, everyone began the long walk towards the direction of the forest - wishing for more time to settle these grudges though not wanting to give Chris or his bosses any more of a headstart than they already had. Jasmine, Eva, Jo and Rodney were in the front of the march with Izzy, Eva, Owen, Noah, Emma and Kitty immediately behind them. The rest all followed without any order in particular.

The sole exception however, was Dave. Instead of getting up and joining the others, he remained seated on the ground, crying as he buried his face into his knees. He would have surely been abandoned had it not been for one single person turning back and feeling sympathy for him.

"Hey, Dave...everyone's leaving out to the shore now, you wanna come?"

Hearing the voice of Cody was enough for Dave to look up, yet through his tear filled eyes he could in truth hardly see Cody at all for the first few moments - until he took one of his arms and wiped the tears from his eyes. He could also make out Dawn, Justin, Trent, Harold, Topher, Mike, Zoey, Gwen and Cameron not far away, with all of the others slowly walking away from the situation.

"W-why are you doing this?" Dave questioned in between his sobbing, "I deserve to die after what I did. Why else is life and everyone I know and thought I loved treating me like this? I have to deserve it!"

"Are we seriously doing this?" Justin questioned aloud, "He clearly wants to be left behind, and you heard what Jo and Jasmine said, let's just leave him before we get left behind!"

"And leave Cody behind too?" Trent replied back.

"We could always just forcibly drag Cody with us. Better us do it than Sierra!"

"See!" Dave then brought attention back on himself, "Justin gets it! I should just be left behind! Nobody will ever forgive me after what I did to Sky, and they shouldn't, either!"

"What are you talking about?" Zoey questioned with a confused look to her face.

"Don't act all nice on me! Ever since I was part of this season, all you did was look down on me as if I was the worst! But you're not precisely super-special, aren't you!?"

"Hey!" Mike exclaimed as he hugged Zoey and glared at Dave, "Don't yell at her! She didn't do you anything! We're trying to be nice to you here and help you not be left behind!"

"After you both were just as awful as everyone else!" Dave shouted back, "Cody was the only one here who took my side at all and stayed by it! The literal only one!"

That made Cody look down in something of embarrassment, but Dave kept going on and on in a combination of both rage and sadness:

"I've been dumped on international television, branded a clingy creep, abandoned on an island, abandoned by my parent, branded a murderer and now I'm stuck on an island again with the chance of being sentenced to death! How much more do I have to suffer until it finally stops?!"

"Dave, I know that what happened to you is tragic, but you shouldn't take it personal-"

"PERSONAL!?" Dave gasped, "Who are you to talk about taking it personal?! In fact, you should know how I feel, Mike! Or should I say, Mal?!"

Zoey gasped in response to that, Mike himself gasp, getting extremely defensive and almost angry at Dave for that comment:

"I have not been Mal since All-Stars ended! You're just trying to make me feel guilty, when I already do! I'm trying to be nice to you here!"

"No offense Mike, but from way I look at it, Dave's right" Cody then added in, "You have been treating Dave more like you are Mal than you are, well, you. Like, you all are literally treating him like he doesn't even matter as a human being! You were all considering just leaving him to die! Yes, he fucked up with Sky, but we've already been over that he didn't know she was going to die! Why are you still going to hold that over him? It's not even him who tried to convince the villain team to vote her off! All he did was stuff that honestly most of the villain team would do to any of us anyway if this were a normal season!"

"So?" Zoey asked, "Mike has a point! Not only was he creepily clingy to her like Sierra is to you, but he practically made her die! I'm sorry I'm not sorry about the idea of leaving him behind! Especially after what he just said to Mike!"

"...what a way to trust your partners, Zoey." Dave sarcastically muttered.

"I was never on your team!"

"Hmph!"

"Look, Zoey" Mike turned to his girlfriend, "I...I think they have a point...I didn't see it because I wanted to be loyal to you and on your side, but...I have...we have...been pretty mean to Dave."

"WHAT!? So you're siding with Dave instead of me, Mike?"

"Wha-what?!"

"Zoey! Mike's not saying that!" Cameron added, feeling already more than stressed with everything, "Do you honestly want to be like Amy and not even care that someone else just died? Because if we do just let Dave be left behind, that's what we're like! That's what Mike's saying! And seriously, the longer we waste time here arguing, the farther the others get from us, even if Sierra's probably going to come back for Cody in a few moments! I'm also especially needed with the others too!"

"Right?" Cody said, "Can you all just stop being so cruel to this one guy?"

"We can stop being cruel to him" Zoey answered after sighing and looking down at the ground, calming herself down, "But it sounds like he actually wants to be left behind!"

"Which is why I think we should just go!" Justin exclaimed, "We all pretty much just agreed that whoever wants to be left behind, would be left behind! Unless someone actually wants to just forcibly take him along."

That's when Topher thought over doing something, before sighing a bit to himself and walking over to Dave. With a slight smirk on his face he actually scooped Dave up into his arms and carried him in an almost cradling fashion, much to his confusion.

"T-T-Topher?!"

"What?" Topher replied, "Nobody else would wanna do it and Cody wouldn't be able to without dragging your shoes along the dirt, and I know how much you would hate that."

"Well, he has a point." Cody admitted with a shrug.

"Yeah, I do" Topher said, "So come on, we should catch up with the others about now.", and both them and the rest of the group made a point to start walking in the direction the others went in the hopes they didn't lose too much time; with Dave being surprised by Topher's act of kindness.

"Topher?"

"Um, yeah?"

"...you...really care about me?"

"I'm just keeping you from dying is all...it's the least I can do" Topher looked to the side on that line, still not wanting to tell the others that had he and his team not stolen the notes, Sky would not have been framed a thief in the first place. He still clearly felt guilty about it, even he seemed confused whether or not his actions were of genuine care or just guilt, or both. Whatever the case, Dave lightly smiled to say:

"I'll take it, thanks."

"Heh"

Topher then felt Dave cling to him with his hands a bit. It was clear Topher did not know how to feel about this, but he didn't make any mention of it as he knew what Dave was going through had to be rough for him.

The others walking alongside them also had their own things going on, however. Zoey, hugging on Mike's shoulder, walked with him to the front of the behind group, as if leading them towards the others. The rest followed either beside or behind in an orderly fashion. Justin, Trent and Harold remained close to each other while Cody decided to walk behind them - or more correctly, close to Gwen and Cameron. Gwen herself actually looked to Cody with a smile growing on her face as she spoke to him:

"Wow, Cody, that was very cool of you back there."

"C-Cool?" Cody perked up, his eyes widening and his face deeply smiling, "You thought I was cool?!"

"Haha" Gwen chuckled a bit, "Yeah. You keeping Dave alive, it was probably the coolest thing I've seen someone do on this whole show."

"Yeah" Cameron nodded, "It was very selfless!"

"Aw, it was nothing" Cody shrugged casually, "I just didn't want everyone to just leave him to die is all. I just wanted to stick up for him, especially after me and him been through similar times."

"What do you mean similar times?" Gwen asked, "You think you and Dave have things in common?"

"Well, both of us have been ignored by our folks, though mine aren't as up front with it, both of us have been attacked by bears in some kinda way, both of us have been crushed on by someone else, and both of us have had our crushes not want us back."

"Wow...that is a lot in common...and, Cody, about that last point..."

"It's alright Gwen, I know I'm just not meant to be with you" Cody said with a sigh, "To tell the truth, I kind of stopped liking you that way after World Tour. I mean, I still like you as a friend! But, if you wanna date someone else, well, first of all I hope they're not a jerk! But secondly, I'm cool with it!"

"Wow...you really have changed, Cody" Gwen smiled, "I'm...surprised. You used to be so...different."

"Yeah, well, I guess my experience with Sierra changed me..."

"Right...are you actually with her?"

"No, not in that way. She just thinks I am."

"Oh."

"Oh and by the way" Cody turned his attention to Cameron suddenly, "I don't 'NEED' her in the way that you said I did!"

"What?!" Cameron was caught by surprise, "I only said that because I was desperate! You should know how I feel!"

"I know, but still...you should know how I feel too!"

"Alright, I guess that is fair enough. I'm sorry, it's just, I was caught in the moment!"

"Guys!" Gwen exclaimed to them, making them stop arguing and turn their attention to her instead, "Stop it! We're trying to escape death and you two are arguing about that?! Are you two serious right now?!"

"Sorry Gwen" both of the boys answered in unison.

"Thank you" she was relieved that they had calmed down, "So, anyway, what do you guys think of the plan?"

"I think heading to Alaska might be for the best" Cameron responded, "It's a lot closer than Japan or Russia are."

"Yeah, but I think we could consider the longer travel" Cody stated, "If we travel in a curve and follow the currents, it won't take that long."

"But we'd have no source of fresh water and not enough supplies for such a long trip!"

"But what if Cassandra has cronies in America?!"

"That is a fair point, but we'd be more likely to all survive a trip to Alaska than a trip to Japan or Russia! Especially considering it'd be the Russian far east that we'd land on!"

"But if she has allies in America, we would be more able to void being killed on arrival!"

"She might have political allies in Russia and Japan too! Plus she might be able to intercept us long before we'd arrive too!"

"She could do that even if we go for Alaska!"

"Guys!" Gwen shouted once more, "That's enough!" she then turned to Cody, "Cody, I appreciate your concern and it is smart and all, but going for Alaska is just more practical. Cameron, we really should probably tell the others to consider the possibility about Cassandra having puppets in the rest of the world."

"Right."

"Yeah" Cody's attitude changed to a much more quiet tone of voice, "I'll just, see what the rest of the old band's doing...bye."

"Wait, Cody..." but Gwen was too late to stop him, he walked past her and towards Trent, Justin and Harold too quickly for her to do so. Cameron patted her on the back though, showing sympathy upon his face. While they dealt with this however, Mike and Zoey remained in the front of the separated group on their trek through the dense forest to reunite with the others. Mike in particular had a deeply concerned look to his face as he turned to his beloved to say:

"That was very unlike you, Zoey!"

"What do you mean?" Zoey was confused by his words, "What was unlike me?"

"The way you wanted us to leave Dave behind...I mean, sure, I wanted to side with you too, and everyone else, but after what Cody said, I realized I was wrong, but you kept going on."

"He said you were like Mal!" Zoey defensively responded, tears forming in her eyes, "And...it's...it's...I'm sorry, it's just, I want to get off this island as fast as possible? Him slowing us down could be dangerous! That's why I was so upset, okay?! I wasn't being mean, I was just stressed! Even I get mean when I'm stressed, alright?! I don't want to watch you be executed just as much as you don't want to watch that happen to me!"

"Zoey, I know" Mike hugged her close with one arm and tried to speak in a softer, understanding tone, "I know, I'm stressed and wanna get off the island too, but we don't need to sabotage or betray everyone else to get there! We were Heroic Hamsters once for crying out loud! We should try to act like that! Even in situations like this!"

"Wow, Mike...that was really inspirational."

"You think? I got it from...nevermind" Mike shook his head back to focusing on the present, "We should keep moving...we need to get back to the others."

"Are sure I shouldn't apologize to Dave? He was hurt pretty bad by how I acted and what I said."

"We can apologize to him when we're at the shore, promise!"

"Alright...let's focus on...oh hey guys!"

She and Mike both became rather elated when they noticed Gwen and Cameron had sped up their walking to catch up to them and in turn walk beside them - Gwen having all but given up on Cody. She did put on a smile on her face though, as did Cameron, when she was beside her more recent friends.

"Gwen! Cam!" Mike happily spoke up, "There you guys are!"

"Yeah, sorry we were behind" Cameron answered, "Gwen felt like she had to talk to Cody for a little bit."

"Cody? The guy Sierra's obsessed with?"

"Yeah" Gwen lightly sighed, "He's a friend of mine...used to like me actually, and I was hoping for a little conversation, maybe you guys could even meet him and stuff. Sierra's so smothering to him, I just feel bad for him nowadays."

"Isn't he the guy whose parents forgot his own birthday?" Mike asked, to which Gwen nodded, "Heh, wow...that's...familiar."

"What do you mean, Mike?" Zoey asked.

"Ah, it's not important!" Mike sheepishly smiled, "I can tell you when we're home, alright?"

"Alright" Zoey raised an eyebrow, "For now, let's focus on escaping!"

"Sounds good to me!" Gwen smiled, agreeing, "The sooner off this island, the better!"

"Yeah!" Cameron added, Mike nodding silently in agreement with his friends.

Meanwhile, not far behind the four there was the group of Cody, Trent, Justin and Harold. Cody offered a gentle smile to his boyband partners, who seemed happy that they finally had a chance to speak with him without the interruption of his stalker.

"Hey, guys. Glad everyone's okay," Cody said, getting a friendly hug from Trent. He could have brought up what he had just talked about with Gwen, but clearly didn't feel like that. Regardless, Trent was the one who spoke next:

"Us too, Codes."

"Look, can we talk about this issue you have?" Justin then brought up, glancing around to ensure 'Miss Stalker' wasn't around, "I don't think she's good for any of us in this kind of situation...at all."

"What is there to say about it?" Cody asked, trying to be happy about being reunited with the Drama Brothers even just for a moment, "It's not like me or anyone can even do anything about her."

"Um, how about this" Justin said, "Stand up to her? Grow a backbone? Have a spine and tell her your real opinion? I'm just saying that it's really felt like since season three, that the sasquatch was more of our fourth member."

"Justin!" Harold exclaimed, "Don't say that! You'll make him feel excluded!"

"I'm not trying to do that, I'm trying to be real here!"

"You? Being real? Since when?"

"What are you trying to say, Harold?"

"I think you know what I'm trying to say!"

"Guys!" Cody exclaimed to them, "Stop it! Can we please not fight? I just got through...I just got back from trying to rescue Dave and everything, can we just focus on escaping? Harold, Justin's not making me feel excluded,he has a good point about Sierra...and Justin...I really wish it was that easy, but she's really persistent, determined, crazy, and a lot bigger than I am too. It's easier said than done. Plus, I'm not good at being a 'mean' guy...it's hard."

"Mean guy? What do you mean by that?"

"You know...a kind of guy who dumps a chick without a second thought, like that."

"It's not that difficult."

"True" Trent replied, "Once I even had Justin handle it for me."

"I know...but I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"I'm not mean like that...and I don't remember you always being like that either."

"Yeah, that's true" Trent rubbed the back of his head, "I guess, after what happened Gwen...I changed...like all people do."

"I know how it feels to deal with Gwen like that...but...still...I would wanna let down a girl easy."

"I would too" Harold confessed, "If I had a girl outside of LeShawna...I both wish she was here and am very grateful that she isn't at the same time."

Justin rolled his eyes at Harold's words, Trent just had no response to it. Cody, wanting to change the subject and not wanting the group to fall apart, struggled to find the next set of words to say and ended up nervously rubbing his arm for a few moments until he said:

"You guys don't think it was bad of me to try to save Dave, right?"

Justin once more opted to not say anything of the matter and let Trent do all of the talking for it instead:

"Not at all" Trent responded with a smile on his face trying to assure his friend, patting him on the back even, "I thought it was an awesome thing you did back there, surprised to see someone on this show being so selfless to be honest...outside of like a few others, that's pretty rare!"

"I just didn't like Dave feeling miserable...more than he is right now." Cody continued, "Especially when all of you were so against him."

"Yeah...I wish I could have said something too." Trent replied, nervously rubbing the back of his head again, "...but...I was afraid everyone would gang up on me."

"Why would you be afraid of that? Everyone thinks you're one of the coolest guys on the show? I mean, I'm one of the coolest guys too, but, you know."

"You really think so?"

"Of course...why wouldn't you think so? We were together for quite a while when we were touring."

"Heh, yeah, you got that right, haha."

"So...what do you say?"

"About what?"

"I don't know...we...forgive Dave? Or something?"

"I don't see why not. Hell, why does it even matter? If everything goes well, we'll all be safe, outta this mess, and going back to our normal lives."

"Except" Justin added, "For hopefully putting Cassandra and everyone she's working with behind bars."

"Alright, yeah, that too."

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

"We're not waiting" Harold corrected, "We're walking. To do just that, actually!"

"We know that, Harold" Justin muttered.

"Come on guys!" Cody said with a slight laugh and a hopeful smile, "Can we stop bickering like chicks and go?"

"Hahaha" Trent laughed, "Right on it, Cody!"

Cody shared Trent in his smile on that moment, happy to know that even if Trent changed, he was still mostly 'Trent.' But Cody knew what they said was true; he needed to stand up to Sierra but even then it wasn't easy. How many times did he try to tell her they could be 'just friends' and now look where he was; in a contest to the literal death, with people he really didn't want to see hurt or worse - andon top of that, he still had to deal with his stalker and people losing what little sanity they still had. The next few words he said were as such, much more solemn and quieted:

"I just...really want us to survive this..." Cody muttered, he could feel the weight of the world on him and he didn't want to crushed by it.

"We all do, Cody," Harold said, "We all want to go home, but that ain't gonna happen until we're off this island."

"But you'll still have to deal with that stalker of yours unless you do something," Justin reminded him, Cody sighed. He could really use a hug or just something to ease this stress. He knew he wasn't the only one, thinking of Dave, he wondered if the guy could use a hug too. Well, maybe he and some of the others.

"Speaking of putting that woman behind bars..." Cody realized, "What about Chris?"

"He's gonna get it too, and Chef, those sickos deserve to be thrown into the deepest hole and left there," Harold snapped.

"She's the reason this is even happening, how could Chris even like a woman like her?!" Trent wondered, she may be beautiful but that that was all she was. The rest of her was nothing but an ugly beast, especially in the eyes of the contestants.

"We will see her put behind bars," Justen assured. "Her and everyone involved in the making of this hell."

Cody sighs, there's so much they needed to do, so much to be scared of and to keep their heads leveled. but something else came up in his head...can they really get off this island? All of them?

"Well...what's left of us" Cody thought, they already lost two...was that going to be the last loses or...Cody shook his head, no. He mustn't think about it. He needed to believe they were going to get off this island without anymore deaths.

"So, we're clear on what needs to happen?" Justin asked, the other three nodded.

"Yeah, and we're serious, Cody," Trent added, the geek glanced up at him. "I say this in the most polite way I can; grow a spine, stand up to Sierra and...get a girl that respects you, dude."

Cody just smiled, saying:

"Sure...but...first we get off this island, then I'll do just that."

There was going to be more words said in this conversation, though ultimately they were never said because what they all ran into - was Sierra. Sierra tapping her feet and having her hands on her hips as she had Junior at her side. An unhappy expression rested on her face, and Jasmine was also standing next to her with a more unsurprised expression - more irritated when compared to Sierra.

"What is going on here?!" Sierra exclaimed, "Cody, why weren't you at my side?! I was worried sick!"

"We were trying to keep Dave from staying behind!" Cody defended himself with, "I basically helped save his life!"

However, Sierra only gasped in response as she grabbed Cody by the wrist - pushing Trent and Justin away as she did so. Harold just stood back and watched disapprovingly as Sierra went on:

"You had me worried sick, over Dave?!" she shrieked in a shrill tone, "How could you do such a thing? You know crazy he is! I don't understand why you would care about Dave's wellbeing over mine!"

"Sierra I would do the same for you if you were in his situation!" Cody protested, "It's the nice thing to do!"

"Not when it comes to Dave!" Sierra scolded, "Not when it comes to me! Now come on, you have a lot of explaining to do, mister!"

"Sierra!" Cody could only attempt to resist her dragging him with her and Junior - who was only following her so closely out of intense fear - Trent, Justin and Harold just sighing and shaking their heads at the sight that just happened. They knew it was inevitable, but it still wasn't pleasant.

Jasmine just shook her head and walked back to the others following this distraction, clearly irritated that already were the words of what she said seemingly not mattering to the others. Regardless, the group was fully united and on the move so she focused on that fact rather than the rather quick dismissal of her words.

Elsewhere on the island however, was Amy. She who had been left behind without any form of second thought by the others, left to her own devices at the dormitory building where she had been asleep within. Once she did finally awake and walk through the dorm of course, it did not take her very long to discover that she was in fact the only one that was still present inside of it. The first thing she said was in the hallway after she had spent about an hour or so looking for anyone and seeing that doors were unlocked but rooms were unoccupied.

"Okay, for real guys, I get it. You hate me" she said aloud while she walked into the communal bathroom, "But this is a little bit ridiculous, don't you think?"

She received no answer.

"HELLO?!" she yelled, "WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE?! I mean...not that I care, but, seriously? Where are you?!"

Yet again, she received no answer.

At first, this seemed to instill a small bit of fear within her. However, with a deep breath and a cursory glance around the hall followed by a walk outside to the front door of where the winning team stayed like kings she put on a front of more anger rather than fear:

"Hello?! HELLO?!" she shouted more, "Would you people wake up already?! This ignoring of me has gone on long enough!"

Even then, there was no answer. Little did she know, she had long been forsaken by the others for her previous attitude presented to them. They didn't even stay to tell her they were doing so, they simply left her to her fate. To whatever might happen or not happen. There wasn't even anything she could do about it, by the time she was calling out for them they were long gone. Far too far into the forest to come back for her if they wanted to - and there was little chance that a large enough number of them did.

Only after further thoughts did the realization of what has actually happened seem to enter Amy - only when she knocked on the door to the Drama Brothers Team's residence to find that it was both unlocked and slightly opened to begin with. A moment of silence came over her as she stepped in and looked around - seeing everything had been left literally as it was when they last exited the building prior. Finally did she realize she was alone.

"They left me" she said, a voice seemingly merged with both sadness and anger, "They left me! Those fuckers left me!"

She then stormed out of the building and back out in front of the dorm building, looking in every direction in desperation to see the others. Any sign of them, big or small. However, she saw nothing.

"Are they serious?" she gasped, "They are...they left me...they seriously left me...those idiots fucking left me! To..possibly...die!"

She spent a few moments more screaming various names out as if to make sure one final time whether or not she seriously was left behind or if this was just some 'cruel' joke played on her by the other competitors.

"SAMEY?!"

The first name she yelled for.

"ALEJANDRO?!"

And the second.

"JASMINE?!"

And the third, as well as one of the last as the next thing she did was finally realize nobody was coming to her aid. Once that finally sank into her brain, the sadness and realization took over her as her voice became something mixed with a whimper:

"Any...anybody?"

As she repeatedly without failure received no response it seemed as though she was finally contemplating her actions. For a moment debate could be had whether or not she was even being genuine or not, as she sighed and showed sympathy as well as regret in the manner her eyebrows curled on her face.

"This isn't how I wanted this to go" was all she said, albeit weakly, as he looked to one of the room doors with a look of sadness, guilt or possibly even remorse on her face. "At all."

Her moment of solace was interrupted quicker than any potential viewer - of which there was none - would have liked. Not surprisingly, this interruption came in the form of a sound from outside - the sound of a golf cart driving up to the front of the dorm being driven by Chef with Chris in the passenger seat. Chef looked neutral at best of the situation, while Chris had his seemingly immortal smile still present on his face. Amy seemed to regain her composure by the time she walked into Chris' line of sight. Needless to say, once the vehicle parked and Chris saw only Amy and nobody else at all, his first move was to take out a megaphone and called out using it:

"GOOD DAY, CAMPERS! INCASE YOU DON'T GET IT, IT'S TIME FOR THE DAY'S CHALLENGE! SO LIKE, COME OUT AND PLAAAAAAAAAAY-AAAY!"

Just as with Amy just some moments prior, Chris received no response. Confused and slightly irritated, he didn't take much longer to use the megaphone one more time:

"CAMPERS? CAMPERS! I SAID, IT'S TIME FOR YOUR CHALLENGE! WAKE THE HELL UP ALREADY!"

"It's no use" Amy said to him, folding her arms, "None of them are here."

"What do you mean none of them are here?!" Chris gasped, throwing the megaphone to the ground beside the cart, "That's either a breach of contract or them all deciding to be stupid again! Or both!"

"Well track them down and tell them that! I woke up and the first thing I saw was all of them already gone, even team loser brothers!"

"Hm…...wait a minute….I got it!" Chris snapped his fingers, "Maybe they gathered on the roof and are trying to S.O.S. or something. Chef, go onto the roof and drag their asses back down here!"

"Alright" Chef bluntly spoke as he got up from his seat and walked into the dorm, saying more but to Amy and Chris it sounded like grumbles and whispers rather than intelligible speech.

Chef's inspection of the dormitory building was not a very long one - mostly because the conclusion that all of the competitors sans Amy were 'missing' was not a hard one to make. Chef however took as much time as he could with it - not going immediately to the roof but instead checking each and every single room that he could even when it seemed obvious that the room in question did not need to actually be inspected. He inspected the shower rooms, bathrooms, each individual bedroom even ones with open doors, and even the furniture of these rooms despite those objects being too small to fit a proper person. He even looked out of the windows despite clearly not needing to do so. By the time he did get to the roof, even more time ended up being used than would be humanly necessary, as he spent nearly half an hour on the roof alone despite knowing how annoyed Amy and Chris were likely getting by the front door.

The only true action that Chef actually did was look in the direction of the woods and silently nod aimlessly in the direction he was looking at before purposely using more time in walking all the way back down to the bottom floor just to peer from the front door to tell the two waiting there:

"I didn't see any sign of them at all", he explained, "I think they're either hiding somethin' real good, in the other house over there, or somewhere else. But I ain't got any idea of anythin' specific."

"Shit!" Chris exclaimed, stepping out of the golf cart himself and stepping on the megaphone - breaking it, "Now what the hell are we gonna do?!"

"How am I supposed to know?!" Chef replied, "I'm just the cook and the co-host, you're supposed to be the big bad main host of this thing!"

"Um, okay, okay, calm down for a moment!" Amy brought their attention onto her, "Before you two have that big fight or whatever can you just tell me what's gonna happen with the challenge and everything?"

"Alright, for that" Chris responded, a finger being put to his chin as he thought it over, "I got it! Okay, Amy, you are by default the winner of the challenge and safe from elimination tonight!"

"Yes!" Amy pumped her fist happily, a look of pure relief on her face bringing doubt to whether or not she truly thought everything was fake or not by how tears just barely formed in her eyes. "Thank you!"

"Welcome."

"And what about the missing contestants?" Chef asked, "What you gon' do about that?"

"Hm" Chris thought his options over for just a few short seconds before snapping his fingers and explaining to Chef, "You're gonna round up some interns, go out into the woods, and bring them back over here!"

"Say what?"

"You heard me! It's a pretty simple, straight forward plan! All you have to do is get in the cart and set off! Or find an A.V. or something, anything! Just go out there and bring them back!"

"Alright fine, I'm on it." with those words, Chef set out back on the golf cart and away to the other parts of the island, leaving Chris and Amy to their own devices. While Chris balled his fists and had a look of frustration on his face, Amy returned to her dorm room to get rest for the day - which was easy if only for the knowledge she was safe from the deeply dreaded elimination ceremony.

With Chef setting out on his own, Chris pacing in front of the dorm, and Amy alone in her bedroom to herself, little did Chris know that his intentions of avoiding the producers knowing of this had already been thwarted thanks to the cameras placed around the island and the buildings. There may not have been a camera crew present, but the producers still for the most part had the ability to watch everyone on the island - so long as they were within the camera room which was indeed located behind the elimination room but was not the mysterious chamber immediately behind it that struck fear into the campers' hearts alone, awake, and as long as the cameras were not damaged or obscured. Which, unfortunately for them, many of them had been.

"What's going on?" Pertchgill growled, his hands slamming on the camera screens that were either static or completely black, "Why aren't these things working?!"

"It appears we have a mutiny on our hands." Misato spoke bluntly, "We knew this was going to happen with the outdoor survivalist contestants. They obviously learned where the cameras were."

"I can see that! Already McLean has messed everything up for us! By now they're on the verge of getting away!"

"Relax. We are on an island. We have plenty of time before they think of how to get out into the water."

"Well we need to find some kind of way to get them back under our control! Don't we legally own them?"

"Political and legal power is powerless against physical willpower. If they had the means, the will and the tools to do so, they could easily just shoot us or Chris in the mouth rather than stick to the contract. And we'd be powerless to stop them. Which is why we need to have some physical power of our own…..and luckily, we do."

Realizing what she meant, Pertchgill's response was in all honestly actually a bit surprising, more so to those who did not know him well enough:

"Are you insane? They only listen to Cassandra anyway, and they may cause unwanted collateral damage!"

"Oh please, I know what the only reason you care about the latter is. I promise you, if what we know of these contestants is correct, we will still have substantial amount of survivors when we have control regained. As for Cassandra, she won't have to know of a thing."

"Alright" Pertchgill took a deep breath, "But if she does find out, I had no part in hiding it from her."

"Very well."

With that having been said, Misato brought her hands over to a microphone device and spoke into it, speaking into an intercom device that seemed to not only send her voice into wherever it was that the executioners resided, but also edited her voice so that it sounded like Cassandra's voice:

"It appears we have something of a mutiny going on. Take care of it."

Just as the producers began to take action regarding the mutiny of the campers, however, the campers themselves had already reached their first destination - the shoreline of the island. One side of them was what Jasmine and Shawn claimed was the pacific ocean, on the other side the dense forest and mountain formations of the island, and elsewhere were some broken logs, smaller rock formations besides the sea, and the sand of the coast. There was little time for relaxation however, the moment they had arrived things were immediately shifting into overtime work. For starters, Izzy, Zoey, Jasmine and Shawn climbed into certain trees in order to get a better view of their surroundings and have a height advantage against the two beings all of them dreaded most - or even the interns and/or Chef himself. Cameron, Ellody, B, Courtney, Noah, Jo, Emma, Beth, Harold, Bridgette and Cody meanwhile were put to work on constructing a raft or vehicle out of the rocks and trees around them large and stable enough to hold everyone and cross large tracts of pacific waters. The majority of the rest of the competitors - Geoff, Staci, Leonard, Tammy, Junior, Sierra, Katie, Topher, Dave, Owen, Sadie, Brick, Ennui, Crimson, Loki, Tyler, Beth, Lindsay, Trent, Gwen, Duncan, Stephanie, Chet, Lorenzo, Anne Maria, Scott, Heather, Alejandro, Ella and Sammy - were gathered around the general area of the beach, most of them sitting on the sand, on rocks or by trees within view of the others. Junior was still shaking with fear, curled into a fetal position while Sierra continued making effort to comfort him. Katie, Sadie and Brick were similarly scared right beside the two, with Kitty sitting between the two small groups. Topher was sitting beside a calmed down but still very fearful Dave, the two of them being of the ones sitting on rocks rather than the grass or sand. As for the remainders - Ryan, DJ, Rodney, Eva and Lightning - were switching between keeping watch on the ground view and helping with the construction when needed. As is such, between those constructing and those keeping watch there was not much in the way of interacting aside from giving orders and following them.

As can be understood, however, not all of the contestants were trusted by the others. Heather in particular, as she sat next to her beloved Alejandro, turned to him with a concerned look to her voice and tone in her voice:

"Alejandro, they're all staring at us like we're the ones responsible for this or whatever."

"I can see that, mi amore" Alejandro spoke in a calmed voice, "They likely believe we're going to steal the escape vehicle on our own."

"Hey, buddy" Scott snarked from not far to the side, "Word of advice, how about not mention stuff like that around these here parts."

"Oh mind your own business" Heather angrily snapped, "It's not like you're much more trustable than us, anyway!"

"I'm just saying."

"Well I'm just saying if you try your sabotage shit during the escape, you're probably going overboard, and there's a lot of sharks in the pacific ocean."

At the mere mention of that fact, Scott gulped and backed away from not only Heather and Alejandro but also kept his distance from the shoreline. Heather, feeling victorious, turned her attention immediately back to Alejandro with a sudden shift from anger back to her concerned tone:

"Alejandro…...are you sure we're all going to get out of this alive?"

"I can't say for certain, but I can at least hope for you and I to do so."

"Well, if we do….I'm only hoping we're going to get as much money as possible from those horrible demons doing this to us!"

"Believe me, my love, so do I."

Elsewhere on the shoreline however were the previously mentioned Dave and Topher, who were sitting beside each other on a rock. Due to the events before, Dave was sitting in what was a fetal position, still having an emotionally hurt expression and demeanor to his face after all of it had happened prior. It changed to something akin to anger however, when he noticed some of the others approaching him and Topher - namely Mike, Trent and Dawn.

"What do you want?" Dave spoke coldly.

"We just wanna talk to you for a little bit" Trent tried to remain in a calm, inviting tone of voice, "That's all."

"About what?"

"We just wanted to say that we're sorry" Mike spoke,"And Zoey is too, but Jasmine and Shawn wanted her to help keep watch. Sorry for, you know...treating you so badly."

"A likely story" Dave replied, "All you care about is watching me suffer. You never liked me. None of you ever liked me, even from the start. You didn't even want to give me a chance, you weren't even there and yet you viewed Sky's side as the only reliable side worth taking! Only Cody even tried to give me a chance at all! You're only trying to apologize now because one of your own called you out on it! The thing is you don't want me to change or be a good person, you just want someone to laugh at for the rest of time!"

"We...we didn't think about it like that" Mike admitted, scratching the back of his head with a look of guilt on his face, "We're sorry if we came off as so biased…"

"Yeah right" Dave argued back, "You're just going to do it again! No matter how nice and normal I am I know the next little mistake I make is going to make you refuse to forgive, let go or forget at all! So don't even bother! You're not sorry! If you were, you wouldn't have been so horrible in the first place!"

"C'mon Dave" Topher assured him, a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure they're just tryin' to make it up to you, they sound genuine to me."

"Well they don't to me!"

"David" Dawn pleaded, "I assure you, I've read their auras well and can assure they are genuinely trying to apologize to you!"

"Yeah right" Dave sarcastically replied, "Auras. I believe that about as much as I believe they're really sorry! Which is not at all!"

"Dave" Dawn folded her arms, feeling offense at yet again being framed as a fake though trying to keep her calm and doing so surprisingly easily, as she genuinely wanted Dave to feel better, "Please…..we're only trying to help you!"

"Then leave me alone!"

"We're just trying to help you a little" Trent said, getting slightly annoyed with Dave's continued attitude, "That's all, dude!"

"Yeah!" Mike nodded, "You have no idea how bad Zoey feels for how she made you feel earlier!"

"Then why isn't she trying to apologize to me directly?! Huh?! Is it because she thinks I'm gonna kill her?! You think I'm a monster like those things are, don't you?! I know I was mad at her, and I wanted her gone, but I didn't think she was really going to die! I thought it was going to be fake special effects or something! I thought it was just a gimmick or something! I didn't know it was going to be real! I'm not even the only one who voted her off either, so it's not like I'm the only one who wanted her gone anyway, why am I the only one being blamed for it, huh?! Why not everyone else who voted her off?!"

"Dave, relax!" Topher restrained Dave just incase he did try to lunge at the three, "Nobody thinks your a monster like those things are, nobody things you're a murderer! At least I know I don't!"

"Yeah dude" Trent added, "None of us said that!"

"Besides" Mike argued in a guilty tone of voice, "I'm about as much of a criminal as you are….in fact technically I actually am one."

"...you...you were, Nah! You can't be."

"Um, you know….Mal, and like...everything."

"Oh...that makes sense, so?"

"So….I…..I….I don't know where I'm going with this, but I'm just trying to say I'm sorry…."

"...why do you think I have to accept your apology?" Dave grumbled.

"I'm, I'm just trying to be nice here…I think we all are."

"Stop it…"

Mike and Trent were both confused, with Dawn trying to do the best she could but even she seemed to see that reasoning with Dave was going to be an excruciatingly difficult challenge at this point - even though all she wanted to do was help him.

"Stop...what?"

"Stop...just, I don't know, alright? I just want to leave this island and forget I ever signed up for this show in the first place!" Dave tried to walk away, but someone stopped him: Cody, who had peered up from his work on the escape vehicle and joined the group after having overheard the ongoing argument, he had grabbed Dave's arms not long after he got away from Topher and began leaving in the first place.

"Let me go, Cody!" Dave protested as he tried to squirm out of Cody's arms, though it was no avail.

"I'm not, try to stay calm!" Cody replied,the others looking on during the duration of Dave's reaction; the more Dave struggled, the more Dave started to emotionally break down into a sobbing fit of tears and cries.

"It's my fault…." he let out yet again, "It's all my fault…."

"No...no, shh shh, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is! YES. IT. IS! Sky is dead and it's all because of me!"

"Dave, it's okay, it's not your fault, just listen to me for a little bit!"

"I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO ANYONE!"

"Dave" Topher tried to take his turn in reasoning with him, "He's only trying to-"

"I SAID I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO ANYONE!" Dave quickly sat back in a fetal position on the rock, burying his head into his legs to make his voice more muffled, yet his words could still made out, "I want to be left alone!"

Trent, Mike, Dawn, Topher and Cody couldn't help but have deeply concerned faces as they looked at Dave - seeing how deep his emotional wounds truly were.

"Dude, being left alone here is the last thing anyone needs. We're trying to escape this hellhole and they might see you, think you are trying to break out of here by default, and kill you. Going with the group could save you and we WANT to save everyone who's still here." Trent spoke reasonably.

"Then why was everyone so mean to me, huh? Why am I being pinned for killing Sky, huh? Why does nobody want to forgive me until now, huh? Until I call it out?!"

"It's a sense of fear and desperation that has claimed the minds of some of the other contestants. They'd be willing to do whatever it takes to survive. I've never felt auras this fragile before…" Dawn confessed, putting her hands to her heart.

"Yeah, so they just are using you as a scapegoat Dave. It's not what anyone really wants, it's just the last thing they could use to shift the blame. We're not going that far though, we forgive you because we're all in this together." Cody said.

"Still….I…...why can't I just be left alone right now?"

"Too dangerous dude. Have you seen horror movies? Being alone is invitation to being slaughtered. But listen, Sky's death was because nobody understood this severe situation yet. She was voted for because of her actions and her standing in the group, not you. Nobody wanted her to DIE! So you have no blame in what happened to her." Topher continued on the points previously made.

"You…..you mean that?" Dave looked slightly more hopeful.

"It's reality T.V common sense!" Topher looked proud of himself as he spoke.

"And right now no one is focused on the competition as much as they want to get out of here…" Mike said.

"True…..I...I guess…...but…..still…...I…..I…"

"What's wrong?" Mike and Topher surprised themselves by asking this question at the same time.

"I don't know…...I just, don't know anymore."

"Dave…" Cody looked extremely worried about Dave's demeanor.

Dawn was the one who seemed to accept this, having dealt with enough people and auras to know when a conversation or mindset was settled. Dave seemed better but still not fully keen, confident, or assured of what was troubling him. As Dawn and the boys stood around awkwardly in states of glumness, concern, or misery, a familiar face arrived on the scene: none other than Noah.

"Soooooo," he said as he walked over to them, "Are you guys done with the emotional episode now, unless you guys want to do nothing of real importance though. It's cool if that's what you want."

"We're trying to help Dave out while we wait to see what the group is up to. Is that so wrong?" Trent responded, a little annoyed.

"That depends I guess" Noah shrugged, "I'm just saying, we do have an escape plan going on, you know, big construction and planning needed for it, and we kind of need all the help we can get on that, including Cody who ran off from it. But hey, if you really do wanna just sit down and wait that's your business."

"I didn't run off from it! It's just… I'm a bit clumsy y'know? Wouldn't be the best possible choice." Cody chuckled in slight self-deprecating fashion.

"Clumsy? Huh? Well, gotta say that really doesn't sound very useful."

"But didn't you build that wooden Gwen head in World Tour all by yourself?" Topher pointed out as though it just occurred to him.

Cody sighed, not wanting to remember that particular moment. Or season, really. Dave seemed to sense the awkwardness enough to pitch in the conversation,

"There are better builders like B though… so Cody probably just wants to sit out…"

"Well, it is what Sierra probably would want anyway" Noah shrugged, "If she wasn't consoling the kid over there she'd probably be freaking out over the possibility of Cody getting a splinter."

"Maybe it means Sierra has matured enough to not be so attached to Cody?" Trent offered, with hope that it may finally be over after all.

"Hah, please. She's literally just attaching herself to Junior at this point, and even then she's still just as protective over Cody as before. Maybe if someone knew to grow a bigger sausage or two, things would change."

"Noah. There is no reason to be throwing shade like that. I think we're all growing from this whether for the better or for the worst. We can't ignore the catastrophe we've caught ourselves in after all." Dawn put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah… a-and we still have room to grow sausages too." Mike threw in with a bit of an awkward wording.

"You know what, I'd rather not keep up the conversation about sausages. I prefer burgers, so to speak."

With that things quieted down. Dawn gave a disgusted expression at the idea of eating any sort of meat. Topher looked amused enough, clearly recognizing some of the double meanings in the words Noah was using. Dave and Cody looked a bit relieved at Mike and Dawn's defense but Trent was still suspicious of Noah as he asked him,

"Are you here to be a jerk again or is there something you want out of us?"

"I don't think you'd give me anything of quality anyway, trust me."

"Of quality? Well what are you looking for anyway?" Cody asked.

"You know what, nevermind. See you guys around or whatever." with that having been said, Noah walked away from the group and back to be around Emma, Owen and Kitty whom he had just spotted off in the distance.

"What's his deal? He was nicer on the Race." Trent questioned.

"It's better to be rational and harsh than crazy and harsh… so let's be thankful for that." Dawn commented.

"Yeah but it makes me think he's up to something suspicious… this could be the start of some new arc or something." Topher said, scratching his chin.

"What, are you going to try to host over what Noah is doing?" Dave questioned half sarcastically himself.

"Maybe. If you think that's for the best."

"I don't know…" Mike admitted, "Maybe we should just leave him alone and focus on getting off this island."

"Yeah that makes the most sense anyway." Topher admitted with a grin.

The mood lightened, the group continued to lie in wait for what would come next in the escape plan. Things were not going well with everyone however, needless to say. Case in point, Sugar. Sugar was walking around the shoreline near where everyone was gathered seemingly aimlessly - pacing around impatiently as she waited for everything to be done and for her along with the others to be on the way out. However, that is when she overheard from the distance a voice who she had been hoping to hear from:

"Excelsior!"

"Wizard?" she turned around excitedly until she realized that Leonard was not talking to her, but instead, to Tammy:

"Tammy, do you know what this is like?"

"What's it like?"

"You know, that one time we played Werewolf in Snowdown Forest and everyone was distrusting each other and we had to successfully pinpoint the werewolf." Leonard said cheerfully.

"It was thanks to my Eagle Eye spell and a handy list of whereabouts that we were able to even find the beast! But here we're trying to use invisibility spells to avoid being detected by murderers."

"We should've packed more potions and epic-level gear…" Leonard frowned.

"Yeah, we really should have." Tammy agreed.

"Ahem!" Sugar cleared her throat to bring attention to herself, "May I have a word in here?"

"Yes fellow comrade Sugar!" Tammy reacted positively, throwing glitter into the air. Sugar just looked at her with a glare as she mumbled just beneath her breath:

"She's worse than Ella already.", then she actually spoke to them, "So I was thinkin' 'bout this here situation we're in."

"Uh-huh… what hath you found maiden?" Leonard asked, although the tone he asked showed signs of reservations about Sugar, but they seemed to fly over Sugar's head as she assumed Leonard liked her indefinitely:

"I was just thinkin' that, say, perhaps some of those host fellers might have a little more help than just them two monsters they got killin' us at the end. Though I have a feeling we already left one behind at least."

"Spies you mean? For what clairvoyant reason?" Tammy inquired.

"Y-yes… it's quite clear that we're all being targeted for being former competitors. Lady Amy just saw an opportunity to purchase immunity from direct death. Why would there be a spy among us?" Leonard added.

"I'm just sayin' that if I were doing something like this, I'd have a little inside job just in case they try doin' somethin' like what we're doin' now! Unless I was really dumb enough to not expect it, anyhow."

"I have to admit" Leonard replied with a look of concern and horror upon his face, "That does sound like something I'd do if I were in charge so I guess…..I guess we should at least consider it."

"We should tell Jasmine about this idea!" Tammy was quick to suggest, "We should start some interrogations immediately!"

"Oh now I wouldn't be so sure about goin' around and doing that" Sugar intervened, "I mean, after all, how do we know that Jasmine herself isn't the mole?"

Leonard and Tammy both gasped that.

"Besides, one of you is a genuine wizard! I'm sure you'll figure out the truth in no time!"

Leonard couldn't help but finally realize the gravity of the situation at that point. Seeing actual death happen in real life was something he never thought he would see or wanted to see in the first place. He didn't want anyone to die, and yet it also made him realize that it wasn't a game anymore. However, at the same time with the thought of there being a mole on the inside - even though in truth there was no such thing - made him not want to reveal to Sugar that he 'knew' his magic wouldn't actually work, instead he played along as to not show anyone any sign of weakness:

"Um….yeah…..I sure will!" he nervously replied, to which Sugar genuinely smiled in awe at, "But, I'd like to perform my truth seeking spell alone…..or at least with only Tammy."

That made Sugar's eyes both widen and slightly twitch, anger taking over her for a few seconds until she took a deep breath and calmed herself down, thus letting out only a squeaky tone of voice:

"Okay! You do what you gotta do, Wizard!" and with that having been said, she walked off from the scene. Not, however, without glaring with intense rage at Tammy as she did so. Speaking of which, Tammy was quick to go over to Leonard with a question of her own:

"Leonard, LARPing was fun and all, but I think this situation calls for something other than magic."

"You think I don't know that, Tammy?! But how do we know that Sugar's not the mole?! I don't want her to think we're showing any weaknesses, or we might…...you know!"

"Oh" Tammy gulped, "Right...I'm sorry."

"It's alright...it's just…...I too thought at first what we saw could've been special effects. Or at least, I wanted to think that."

"I think we all wanted to think that."

"True…...I just hope we get off this island and bring justice to these evil-doers!"

Tammy nodded eagerly in response to that. Meanwhile, with Sugar herself it was not long after she turned from walking away to storming away that she came face to face with her - one sided - nemesis, Ella. Ella, as always, as in a relatively pleasant mood though she hadn't so much as sang a single tune since witnessing the previous execution.

"Sugar!" she said happily, "It's been a while since-"

"Oh can it, missy!" Sugar interrupted with a callous tone, "I still don't feel like talkin' to the likes of you!"

"Oh my….is, something still bothering you? Has it just been a certain period of the month whenever you are brought to compete on the show?"

"Ella, I was just startin' to find someone that grinded my gears more than you do, don't make me change my mind."

"Really? Well, I'm dreadfully sorry!"

"Just shut up and leave me alone for pete's sake!"

"If you say so… but I just worry for your safety and peace of mind with how this story has derailed. As one friend to another I would hope you could trust in me to speak about the matters at hand." Ella clasped her hands together and tried to speak more quietly.

"Didn't I just say a few seconds ago for you to leave me alone? Are you deaf now or what?"

Ella had often been told by a few non-fans of her songs that she was tone deaf but hearing it now in a different context had a different kind of effect. She felt pained that someone she had often tried to connect with but never fulfilled successfully was putting up a wall against her. Even in a time of desperate need and measures it seemed her sweet songs and attempts at compassion were being rebuked. She was not a violent person at heart and the idea of the rebellion spooked her and made her fearful for the safety of the other contestants but it was what had been agreed on. Talking with someone who was usually fearless like Sugar would've given her more comfort in going along with this plan but she wasn't able to get it now. Perhaps for one of the rare few times in her life, Ella seemed to accept that she would have to give up on befriending someone.

"... I apologize. I'll leave you to your… pageant." What was supposed to be a term that Sugar thought of favorably sounded slightly sarcastic when Ella thought it over. However, the only thing Sugar said was a mutter to herself:

"Which you still ain't gon' win."

Ella didn't give Sugar a response, but rather what she really wanted, silence. She walked away and didn't look back.

Not long after that moment however, did Ella run into someone much more friendly to her, or at least one more willing to be. This person was none other than Sammy, who had been pacing around to herself for some time with a confused look to her face when Ella approached her and took notice of it.

"Oh Sammy! Are you having a splendid day so far?" Ella asked, trying to muster up some cheer.

"Oh, hey Ella….I guess, about as cheerful as one can be on this place...which isn't much."

"I daresay I have to agree on that. It's times like these where I would've preferred to be on World Tour rather than Pahkitew Island. I imagine I still would've had slight spine damage though." Ella remarked happily. Thinking back to her favorite season of Total Drama had given her some strength in the past and right now, she needed that strength more than ever.

"Well I'm glad you can stay optimistic about this…..I'm not so lucky" Sammy spoke with a sigh, "Right now I can't believe I'm feeling like this….but I actually feel guilty about just leaving Amy alone to whatever fate's gonna do to her."

"Even Cinderella couldn't truly be mean to her stepsisters when she found her happily ever after. For all of Amy's aggressiveness, she is still in a vulnerable situation as all of us are. As you sister you are worried for her safety." Ella assessed the situation in her own way.

"That's all true" Sammy sighed, "Now I feel even more guilty. But….it's way too dangerous for us to just go back and try to convince her to leave with us. THEY could know that we're gone by now."

"They being our tormentors correct?"

"I think that goes without saying."

"Well ideally I think Amy should be able to get by, it seems there's a method to their cruelty after all. If there's no good reason to hurt Amy, they wouldn't do it. The game's also been all but abandoned too so elimination ceremonies wouldn't be up for consideration. I say we let things be and focus on our own efforts Sammy." Ella offered a friendly hug, and Sammy actually let out a soft smile as she returned it in an equally friendly manner.

"Thank you, Ella."

"It's no trouble at all." Ella said.

It was then at that moment however that they were approached by a third person, Brick, joining their conversation at what in some ways was the last possible moment to do so. Brick, ever polite especially to females, had this to say as he approached them:

"Excuse me ladies, but I couldn't help but notice that you two were suggesting things about the fate of Amy."

"Suggesting is a strong word. We were more-so believing that Amy will be alright because she's not in the same position as we are." Ella looked a bit caught off-guard by Brick's word choice.

"Oh...well...if you are unsure about her safety, I could perhaps provide the service of being an escort through the dangers of the forest, if you wish."

"No… I think it's too dangerous to do even that." Sammy looked over to the forest as she spoke with slight regret.

"Well, that is true. Though, I can not help but have the desire to perhaps make the memories of Sky's end leave my mind by perhaps saving at least one person. Even if that one person is Amy."

Both girls looked uneasy at being reminded of that. Yet they understood Brick's desire as a military soldier dedicated to protecting the innocent. It was also a good idea to raise moral and overcome those dark memories. Ella nodded in agreement and Sammy chimed in,

"Well sure, we can find ways of saving people. Amy included. Let's just play it safe though and not take any huge risks until we see how the rebellion turns out."

"I will admit, that is a sound point. I am really hoping we are successful in this. I'm scared though that the odds might not be in our favor…."

"I still wish we could be doing something other than a violent free-for-all but I suppose it's the only option that could realistically change our dire situation…" Ella sighed.

"Well if we work together we should be alright right? We're known for finding ways that even the show can't predict. Like hijacking a hot-air balloon, or a zeppelin, or pretending to be your sister for a few episodes more." Sammy offered.

"That's all very true!" Brick responded, "I found my way out of an abandoned mine craft with the stench of my boot!"

"Then success should surely be on our siiiiiiiiide, we will rise above the shore as a flowing tiiiiiiiiide." Ella, encouraged and inspired, sang a short verse, the first verse since the previous execution that she'd made.

"Though I think we could use more people than just the three of us."

"That's where the Codemesiter and crew come in!" A cheerful voice suddenly called out in the air - coming from none other than Cody. Though, not far behind him were also Mike, Topher, and Dave.

"Oh! Dave! And the others! How delightful to see you all again!" Ella looked gleeful at the presence of so many familiar people.

"I...I guess so" Dave muttered, folding his arms and looking down at the ground, as if not wanting attention to be placed onto him.

"We were just getting ready for the storm of the century! Which is basically 'Battle Royale' but y'know. Drama." Topher declared with dwindling flair.

"What do you mean by 'Battle Royale'?" Sammy responded, an eyebrow arched in confusion.

"Well the good news is we're not killing each other. Bad news is we're doing the 'trapped on an island with tons of danger and we're young' thing from that movie." Topher explained.

"Must've not been a very good movie…" Cody said, trying to diffuse tension.

"Hey! Don't judge before you try." Mike of all people came to the defense of the said movie.

"I see…" Brick looked a bit fearful of the movie concept.

"Is it almost time to depart for our rebellion then?" Ella asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is….so if we're going to make an attempt to save anyone we should probably start now."

Sammy and Ella looked to one another. Were these two formerly frail girls ready for something this serious? It was extreme and intense and there was no more time to waste till it started. But at that moment, a certain interruption was made;

"I don't think it's a very good idea" Shawn was quick to tell them as he hopped down from a tree he had previously been standing on - presumably having been there overhearing the conversation, "Have you not noticed not only does Amy have no care about us at all, but also might as well be labeled Chris' favorite? Plus, have you not seen zombie movies at all? Going back to where the infection started is NEVER a good idea!"

"Sure, because we're clearly struggling to find a cure." Dave looked a bit irritated at Shawn's words.

"We're open to recommendations for other plans Shawn. How would you lead our troops into battle?" Brick asked patiently.

"Well, I would personally follow ideas I learned from Zombie movies, I actually helped come up with the plan alongside Jasmine! I think setting out on the water for open sea is the best idea to be honest. Once we're past Canadian waters she can't get to us."

"An escape plan then?" Dave inquired.

"Um….yes….haven't we already gone over what the plan is? Or did you guys all forget? You know dangerous that is?!"

"The escape could take weeks though to get to shore and supplies are limited. I mean it's like trying to retreat to land from Hawaii… some of us aren't strong swimmers either or as athletic as me. If we can overpower our captors, we'd not only be able to settle this responsibly, but we'd contact help sooner." Brick summarized their options.

"Our captors have two, um….two….I'm not sure what they are, on their side that took down a trainee for the olympics like she was nothing to them. They could have more than just those two at their disposal for all we know. Plus, for food all we'd have to do is do some fishing off the raft, and if we head for Alaska it's not going to take as long as Hawaii, Russia or Japan."

"But that's really cold…t-though I don't think Russia or Japan is as close to where we are in Canada as you might think, Shawn…" Mike pointed out.

"That's what I just said about that last point" Shawn rebutted, "But also, better cold than dead."

"R-right… sorry, I'm just feeling really antsy right now." Mike admitted, looking a bit out of it.

"I have to agree with Shawn personally. An escape would be more fruitful and less risky than something involving combat and danger." Ella bravely offered her take.

"Honestly though I think some of us aren't going to let that fly. You know how hateful some people can be and how some of us think violence solves everything." Dave muttered darkly.

"That's true" Cody answered, "And I'm not gonna say names."

"You're not?" Sammy looked surprised.

"I think it's obvious."

"Well I think we have a right to know cause this could risk their lives if they act recklessly." Brick pointed out.

"Jo… Brick… Lightning… maybe Scott… i-if we're talking my season anyway." Mike offered much to Cody's surprise.

"Sugar and Max." Dave pitched in.

"Stepha-"

"Stop! We're getting off-track here!" Shawn added in annoyance.

"Sorry Shawn. I agree we should all consider more carefully if we should go through with this rebellion or not." Ella said.

"What is there to consider? It's either we rebel or we keep being their play things for the rest of our lives, which won't be very long this time around! It's honestly been a long time coming that we stand up to them and their contracts 'owning' us all the time anyway. In all of those movies you know why it escalates to have so much death? Because they wait until the last act to actually rebel at all! We can maximize the survivor count by rebelling early instead of later!"

The contestants listened to this and seemed to be in acknowledgment of the idea. Hesitation was possible but very unwise in these scenarios and it often backfired more than it offered an opportunity to be found. In addition the promise of the 'contracts' had not just been an issue for Courtney or Gwen, the most vocal about them, but it had been a bother for all the contestants. It was do or die time and perhaps that was the real meaning of an 'escape plan'. Dave in particular looked to actually be somewhat reassured and confident again while the others exchanged glances and nods.

"You're absolutely right Shawn. No way are we falling because we are hesitating too much. Let's do this rebellion without any more cold feet!" Topher exclaimed proudly.

"And we'll become stronger by doing it sooner too." Mike said.

"We'll give it our most very bestest." Ella remarked cheerfully.

"Good!" Shawn remarked, bumping his fists together. After that, he left off to his own devices and left them to their own as well.

Elsewhere, the shoreline was still packed with the many contestants bracing for what could be considered the biggest challenge of all. The most important contestants, the ones who had been front-runners and strategists and the most dramatic seemed to be in charge of battle planning and a few of them were in intense debates. The nicer ones were over talking about the danger of the battle and a few were trying to talk them down from direct combat. The others, the ones who were early outs, not as connected to the cast, or weren't as physically viable as the others had been scattered. Around the former Dock of Shame were Ellody, Rodney, Staci, and Owen. Ellody was writing feverishly in a little notepad she had brought for the purpose of science and discovery while Staci and Owen seemed to be entertaining each other with stories. Rodney, on the other hand, was pacing and looked the most anxious of the four.

"So then my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother decided that she should invent stinky cheese since stinky cheese has more novelty than non-smelly cheese!" Staci jested.

"That's not true at all." Ellody commented, "And believe me, I know it as a fact thanks to knowing that no human being could have actually invented neither stink nor stinky cheese."

"But there are cheese makers that can create stinky cheese. I've eaten several vegan stinky cheeses, normal stinky cheeses, and even stinky cheese pizza!" Owen was in denial.

"*Sigh* This is absurd."

"What is?"

"Just… this whole dilemma. Unsanctioned murder, brutal executions, and then us developing an insurrection while cameras are still watching us! No wonder North America is in hot debate over gun control. Alas, we're in a position where we may be seen as expendable should things go awry." Ellody pointed out with frustration.

"... Expendable?" Staci looked a bit scared at that idea.

"I… I don't mean to imply mortality rates Staci but I feel in this group dynamic, we need to carry our weight. I've devised a theory on how we can do that." Ellody stood up and held a finger up boldly. "All you have to do is listen to my theory carefully and pay very good attention to it!"

This caught the attention of Rodney and even Staci and Owen looked a bit intrigued. Though the three of them weren't exactly geniuses and hadn't always been able to follow things like theories before, their senses were sharper through survivor instincts. Thus even Ellody's words were things they could keep up with now. Not to mention she had been a bit less quick to go into detail with things as she had been on the Race. So the three of them waited for her to speak as she started to look through her notes.

"Notably, Amy has been a topic of great internal divide within our group. She's the only one still in the 'game' and has the highest success rate of the material million dollar prize." Ellody started.

"I think the million dollar prize is a lie!" Staci spoke up.

This won her several dubious looks from the others. She was notorious for lying after all.

"... Well I do!" Staci shrugged her shoulders.

"Ultimately, though, she's in cohorts with our adversaries. We might need to verify though if she's truly a priority in their eyes."

"Amy didn't look as though she's proud of being involved with them." Rodney said meekly.

"I don't know, she can be as scary as them sometimes. The way she treated her sister was pretty harsh too…" Owen opened up.

"Well ideally, she could potentially serve as a beacon of information about our enemy. Should we go to save her, would they retreat their forces from the rebellion battlefield to counterattack our invasion? Thus we'd be able to distinguish our enemies primary motives and also serve to gain an advantage in the element of surprise." Ellody finished her thoughts proudly.

"That…..actually does sound like a pretty good idea!"

"It is dangerous but I think I'm up for it!" Staci admitted.

"W-wait really…? But you've never really been deemed a go-getter Staci…?" Ellody was aware she might've come off as rude but she was just so surprised.

At this point Staci looked a bit sad, then fearful, then suddenly she started to tear up. Her tears stained the dock as Owen quickly rushed to her side in concern. Rodney also looked worried, muttering a 'oh no'. Ellody was a very logical person and so this sudden display of emotion from someone who always seemed to defy logic only served to baffle her even more. But before she could apologize, Staci started speaking through her sobs,

"I-I don't want to be… v-voted off next… l-l-last time I lost my h-hair… this time I could DIE! I-i-if I was on that team instead of Sky… would I have been the m-most recent victim…?"

"But you weren't…..and, there's a lot of people on you're team as well...it's impossible to say."

"Besides, it seems everyone's more focused on past grudges. Though you may have been obnoxious and not as strong before, you've come beyond that and others have done more notorious things. Cheating on boyfriends, physically crippling contestants, sabotage, trusting the wrong people… you have nothing to worry about Staci." Rodney added.

"Yeah! Hahaha… there's no point in thinking we're going to throw each other to the wolves anymore. We're all in this together!" Owen raised his arms up in pride.

"... T-then I want to help… I tried very hard in my season... e-even if it didn't look like it and so I'm... g-going to try even more this time to help." Staci wiped her tears as she started to calm down from everyone's kind words.

"So in regards to my theory, we must venture off back to where Amy was stationed and attempt to bring her back to our side while the rebellion goes on. It's risky but with some of our strengths and hidden talents, we could make it through safely and find important information for the group to apply." Ellody continued.

"I don't know….is the risk really worth taking?" A sudden monotone, male voice asked. It was, as one would have already known, Ennui with Crimson right there at his side and Loki inside of his shirt. Judging by their words, they had come into the picture and overheard the plan for a few minutes.

Ellody was startled by the sudden appearance of the new-wave Goths. Even prior to her elimination, their haunting composure and inability to show fear in their make-up had intimidated her and Mary greatly. But Mary was not here with her now and the situation was dramatically different. She knew she would have to face the Goths as an individual Genius and convince them her theory had merit. Owen's shriek created a brief moment for Ellody to gather her thoughts as the blonde boy hid behind Rodney. He was not good with sudden arrivals. She cleared her throat and spoke to them,

"Crimson. Ennui. I believe this is our best contribution to the rebellion effort. We are not fighters or capable of the feats that some like Jo and Duncan and Zoey and Shawn can do. Though bold and dangerous, gathering information is essential for any rebellion-based movement. Furthermore if things go well, Amy could give us what she knows about her enemy and we'll have momentum."

"... I will say Loki has a bad feeling about the clash that will go on here… but certainly capture at this point is instant death. Is Amy also worth going back for?" Crimson didn't sound convinced.

"Yes!" Rodney of all people said with sincerity in his voice, "She certainly is!"

"I mean, she has family to go back to and family who's here right? Reuniting her with her sister in this cuckoo la racha scenario would be best!" Owen chimed in, still hiding behind Rodney.

"... I can relate to wanting your loved ones around and safe. Even if they are of hearts of darkness. Me and Ennui joke about the idea of dying but to be faced with it so closely is a bit discomforting. Still… helping you guys is better than potentially being burnt or shot or electrocuted or whatever weapons they might bring against us so… whatever." Crimson rolled her eyes.

"That isn't exactly proper aplomb there Crimson…" Ellody said nervously.

"It's truth. Still, Loki believes we might find a way of survival and victory if we follow your theory. We're coming along." Ennui said.

"Well, the more the merrier, or in this case the more practical."

"When do we leave then?"

"Ideally we should go shorty before the rebellion battle begins. That it's a two-pronged diversion against them and we'd have adequate cover to find and rescue Amy." Ellody planned.

"My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great aunt invented diversions. Before then people would just accept whatever came their way." Staci remarked playfully.

"And we're not going to accept death! Let's do this!" Rodney said, feeling brave.

"WAHHOOOOOOOOO!" Owen, for the first time in a long time, gave a signature cheer.

Meanwhile, another small group was chatting about similar issues, to a point. This group was none other than one consisting of Noah, Emma and Kitty with Lindsay and Tyler also together not far behind them. Noah was, as always, being the pre-imminent force of skepticism and cynicism about most of the ideas being passed around:

"It just doesn't sound right to me, is all I'm saying. Unless you want to become the next to die though, in which case go right ahead."

"Don't be dumb in love Noah. This is an important mission! Like, the most important mission in the history of missions! You've seen the past seasons haven't you? The villains have always tried to take advantage of situation to get the ultimate prize or to keep people on the down low!" Kitty folded her arms, used to being the one not included in things from her sister.

"Yes but they are also prone to lying." Noah sarcastically remarked, "And taking advantage of people like you, so I'd totally say that we should probably leave the 'bring down the villains' to the professionals. As much as getting back at that slippery eel would bring me joy."

"I'm with Noah!" Emma vehemently stated, "You're not going anywhere Kitty, not with the time of us leaving being as soon as the escape raft is built! Not with the….THINGS...we're up against!"

"Guess that's a no to you leaving" Noah commented, directed of course at Kitty. Emma nodded as he said those words.

"Wait we're not leaving…? But I don't want to stay here to die…" Lindsay looked hurt.

"No, no, no" Noah said to Lindsay, "She's not leaving, as in Kitty. More specifically, she's not leaving with the group that she wants to go investigate."

"But what if she goes with someone tough and protective? Like Dave and his group?" Tyler pitched in as he put a comforting arm around Lindsay. Noah however, just laughed. He laughed to a point where it seemed his gut was about to burst:

"Hahaha, hahaha, HAHAHAHAHA! Did you just say that, DAVE, was tough? Did you seriously just suggest that?"

"Dave's tougher than you! You don't even want to try to prevent us from getting backstabbed! Hard from the looks of it!" Kitty complained.

"Um… if I was still Wonder Woman and had the cowgirl lasso that tells the truth, I could help but I lost it on the set… that's why I'm skipping out. Sorry." Lindsay confessed nervously.

"Awww, it's okay babe" Tyler assured her, "You still got me around, nothin's gonna hurt ya while I'm around!"

"D'aww! I'm so glad we ever, ever, ever got back together!" Lindsay exclaimed happily.

"Please you two… we're trying to discuss something important with my sister. One of the most important people in my life." Emma said, impatient. This quieted the two lovebirds down enough as Kitty frowned at her sister.

"Emma why can't you trust me? We made final four together… and if you came along with me, we would easily be able to discern if someone like Alejandro was lying to us!" Kitty pointed out.

"Because that wasn't life-threatening!"

"Our lives are on the line either way!"

"Ridonculous Race was BEYOND different from this!"

"That adds to my point! We're in a situation that no matter which choice we make, we are in danger. We should at least try and stand up for ourselves right? Especially if there's people who could get in our way when we least expect it!"

"We're doing that right now! By planning to get off this island and then expose that demon woman for what she really is! She's probably right now trying to smooth talk the media into not considering her a suspect! The villains aren't even doing anything and if they were, I still would not want you alone with them!"

"Then why not come with me?!" Kitty stomped her foot at her sister's attempt to change the suspect.

"Escaping and surviving is the main priority Kit! Even a 'what-if' scenario like the villains plotting something doesn't matter in the long run!"

"..." Kitty looked slightly defeated.

"Well what if her idea is leading to the right track though?" Tyler asked.

"She could a Kitty detective!" Lindsay exclaimed, trying to support Kitty, and it did at least get a smile to grow onto Kitty's face. Emma however, was still most unrelenting.

"No, it's just….ugh, I don't want her to get hurt!"

"Sisters keep sisters safe! Like soul sisters do!" Lindsay continued.

"And besides, they'd have to catch her if they wanted to do something with her and there's no way you or Noah would let any harm come to her." Tyler said.

"I…..I…." Emma was at a loss for words now.

"And we'll be praying to every holy mother we know to keep you all safe. Like my own mother!" Lindsay said.

"Yeah! Besides, you're the brains and I'm the social one! We're a deadly combo Emma!" Kitty pumped her arms. Emma couldn't help however but sigh, and this was a reaction of regret and skepticism that she shared with her boyfriend Noah.

"This is not going to end well." Noah commented snarkingly.

"Then YES! It's a yes! Thank you thank you thank youuuuuu!" Kitty ran up and hugged her sister tightly.

"Yeah….I guess….it is."

"YAY! Send pics!" Lindsay clapped her hands happily.

"#Sleuthing! Am I right?" Tyler asked his girlfriend.

"Oh I thought it was hash browns… but that works wonderfully!"

"Haha, it sure does, baby!"

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go see if they are up to no good!" Kitty exclaimed, grabbing her sister's hand and starting to pull her along.

"Well, let's get it over with." Emma promptly replied, being sure to bring Noah along with her as well.

"Have a great time!" Lindsay sent them off with a friendly wave good-bye alongside Tyler.

"We won't…" Noah mumbled under his breath but secretly appreciated having time to himself, Emma, and Kitty. Nevertheless, now he had to join them in walking over to the spot on the shore that most of the 'villainous' contestants had congregated. Most of them were in one place, though the more 'trustable' or 'necessary' of the villains, such as Courtney, were actually mingling with the others in constructing the vehicle of their escape.

"So we're leaving the construction to B, Eva, Cameron, Scott, and Duncan right…?" Courtney asked, mumbling the last name as she did so.

"Hm, I think some of the others skipped out." Alejandro commented.

"Like who?" Courtney asked, looking around and looking at all of those currently involved in construction - Eva, B, Cameron, Scott, Duncan, Ryan, Stephanie, Lightning, Jo and Heather. Clearly however, there were ones missing from before. "I see Rodney's missing in action."

"No idea where gung-ho casanova went off to. He was trying to hit on me until Ryan stepped in though so happy he's not around to be honest." Stephanie confessed.

"If we are really going to be building this escape vehicle, we'd oughta to start now." Cameron said, a bit nervous to be around such intimidating people.

"Right, right. Everyone, chop chop." Courtney clapped her hands twice to emphasize her command but it only earned her scornful looks from the instructed builders.

"Something will go 'chop chop' if you keep talking to us like you're a wannabe empress!" Eva threatened.

"Sorry for emphasizing the point we need to get this done quickly Eva!" Courtney reacted a bit defensively.

B stood in between them almost instinctively, arms spread out. Without any words he made the point across that there shouldn't be any fighting going on at a crucial hour. Courtney looked baffled while Eva looked like she still wanted to slug Courtney. Either way, both girls cooled down enough to allow things to get done. Eva, Cameron, B, and Scott set out to start building. Duncan gave a brief eyebrow raise at Courtney before following on after them as well.

"Well...um…..right! Make sure this gets built before, well, I don't want to think about it." Ryan said.

"Seriously though Courtney, you're only useful for your lists at this point. What makes you think you can just take charge?" Jo turned to Courtney with spiteful words.

"Well, since Jasmine is out keeping watch for, well, whatever those things may call themselves, I figured that I am the most qualified for planning and managing the construction of our escape vessel!" Courtney replied.

"You can barely manage your own elimination orders!"

"Ugh, would you two just shut up already? This quarrel has gotten old. And I am not risking my life to let any measly conflicts get in the way of this." Heather grumbled, folding her arms.

"Mis amore is right. I for one believe that we need to let things get done rather than try to object to them." Alejandro said, putting a comforting hand on Heather's shoulder.

"Still… do you think this is really the only way out of here? Couldn't there be like a secret tunnel or a plane something that we're missing?" Stephanie asked.

"Lightning doesn't really think there is at this point! Or else we would've been gone a long time ago!" Lightning admitted.

"What about one of their private yachts or helicopters or something? They have to keep one lying around while they're here….unless they really do just send that Chris dude over here and just leave him the whole time."

"That's right…..didn't Chris have a helicopter during that Parkview season or whatever?"

"He ALWAYS had an helicopter." Heather pointed out, "He pretty much has EVERYTHING. Besides, he's the husband of the prime minister. Pretty sure he has bodyguards too. At least, more than before."

" And only two people could even get on the helicopter to begin with." Courtney added.

"Hell I'd go for it! I haven't even had a baby yet or got married or achieved my life's dream! I'm not going to let me or Ryan die here!" Stephanie interjected with intense determination.

Heather shifted uncomfortably after hearing this, much to Alejandro's guilty conscience. The others looked cross or concerned about what Stephanie had said and didn't notice Heather's reaction.

"Oh so you think you two are just going to go on a suicide mission to get some helicopter?" Jo angrily asked, "One probably swarming with bodyguards, if not those two things probably programmed to kill us, all by yourselves, probably in the middle of the forest ? Well, good luck with that! I'd rather take my chances with the option slightly less likely to end in my death."

"Waiting for a ferry like a coward?" Stephanie taunted.

"Whoa easy Steph… cowardice doesn't always mean it's the wrong choice. Sometimes it can be the right choice." Ryan calmed down his girlfriend from getting to overzealous.

"But Ryan, anything could happen! They could blow up the escape they build with some rocket launcher or something! They could gas the entire island! They could do what they did to the ones who got killed already to all of us!"

"Look just calm down already. The team we chose to build the escape vehicle is expertly trained and quick. Furthermore there's been no indication of any attack or offensive on the side of those demons. We're on the right track." Courtney said, hoping to put an end to what she sensed was paranoia.

"Whoa Sha-look! It's the sisterhood of the traveling nerds!" Lightning pointed to a sight coming into view - the view of Emma, Noah and Kitty walking towards them.

"Pleasantly surprised to see none of you have gone Lord of the Flies on us." Noah said in usual sarcastic fashion.

"What do you three possibly want? We already have a building crew." Alejandro, never Noah's biggest fan, was the first to question them.

"Heh" Noah scoffed, before sarcastically smirking as he said "But can you build it?"

"As sure as we can build a hammer to knock you in with." Jo taunted in annoyance.

The others in the group gave her a severe stare. Jo often had a tendency to speak as though she was speaking for the others and clearly they didn't want her to give off any skewed impressions. This definitely didn't fly over Emma's head though as she replied,

"Threatening people now? Or are you stockpiling weapons? Go ahead. Explain what you've been up to."

"It was just a joke made in bad taste Emma. We are NOT doing anything that demeaning or insane. We actually WANT to live and not burn bridges." Heather stepped in, "Unless you would rather burn bridges, but that's you."

"We're not burning anything! We just came to let you know that we're doing our part to keep the escape going smoothly. We've been very honest with one another." Kitty said, "Can't you do the same in return?"

"That depends on whether or not it's even your business!"

"Which I think it is!"

"Well what exactly do you want to know then?" Courtney asked, willing to play along, "Letting us know now would be best."

"How long have each of you been keeping one another under tabs?" Noah asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Please Courtney, everyone remembers you're little elimination order list that accounted for everyone on All-Stars. Even if it's not known how Mike could have possibly gotten a hold of it."

"See?" Jo jumped in, not resisting the chance to join in shading Courtney.

"Uh people, I think he's asking how long we've been watching one another as a group." Stephanie surprisingly cleared up the situation."I mean, not that I have been doing that of course, because I haven't." she said while suspiciously looking around at everyone in the immediate area.

"We have indeed been watching one another and none have wandered around suspiciously." Alejandro concluded.

"Are you sure you have proof, though?" Noah asked, still cocking one eyebrow above the other.

None of the villains were keen on answering based on the following silence. It was unknown if it was because they didn't want to disclose any sort of personal information regarding monitoring the others or they felt it wasn't important to share. After coughing awkwardly, Ryan was the one to reply,

"Well we all have to use the bathroom at some point and we've all been going about collecting supplies and getting some private time so I guess we don't have one-hundred percent proof. But I promise you, me and Steph would never do anything that would sabotage our escape route."

"And Heather and Alejandro?" Noah questioned again, knowing full well who was mostly likely to be doing any kind of sabotage, especially after his own prior experiences.

"What about us?" Heather questioned, squinting her eyes angrily at Noah for even continuing to ask.

"Have you two been sneaking around and doing evil villain stuff?" Emma asked, matching her boyfriend's sarcasm.

"So you seriously think we'd be willing to end other people's lives?"

"Didn't your boyfriend almost feed someone to sharks?"

"Can we please stop referencing past seasons? The situation we're in hardly qualifies for us to be genre savvy." Courtney complained.

"Courtney's right. Sha-Lightning thinks that the nerds need to back off!" Lightning challenge.

"Alright fine! Sue us for trying to make sure we are all on the same page! If you want to know what our side is doing, we're all waiting for the escape route and nobody has been planning or making side plans!" Emma shouted.

"That most certainly should be what everyone is doing. It is a privilege to know that your side has been following the rules." Alejandro praised them with a superior-sounding tone.

"Yes" Noah almost hissed, "We. Have."

"Anyways, why don't we just go stay with the building crew then? That way we could see how progress is coming along and there won't be any sense of distrust regarding people being monitored or whatever." Stephanie offered.

"Anything to get these bozos off our case." Jo insulted.

"Have you even looked in a mirror recently Jo?" Kitty fired back.

"Have you?"

"Yes and without breaking it." Kitty folded her arms and smirked.

Jo looked like she wanted to slug Kitty but with Emma being around it'd have invited even more of a confrontation than what was already going on. The villains, some of them more begrudgingly than others, made their way over to where the builders had headed off towards. This left Emma, Noah, and Kitty to feel a bit satisfied at managing to get the more hostile contestants to cooperate. Yet, they couldn't help but still feel nervous at how unpredictable some of them had proven to be and whether or not they weren't up to something sneaky.

"Will admit" Noah remarked, "It went better than I thought it would."

Elsewhere on the island, but not very far from the others at all, there was Jasmine - the de facto leader of the rebellion, who was determined to help as many people get off of the island as she could. She was soon approached by a very familiar surfer girl, Bridgette. Bridgette looked like she had a lot on her mind and Jasmine was in a position where she felt she had to answer whatever Bridgette had to ask.

"Jasmine, is everything going steady?" Bridgette began.

"Just about" Jasmine answered, turning to face Bridgette, "What's wrong? I mean, aside from the obvious. I know that being among the first to witness….you know...can't be good for the noggin."

"With how many times I've fallen off a surfboard or on a sidewalk… yeah. I'm really worried about Junior though and some of the more innocent ones here like Ella or Lindsay or Rodney. Do you think they are handling this ok?"

"I should hope so. I think they will just be fine. What I'm worried about is getting as many people off this island as I can."

"You don't think the escape pad is enough to get all of us out?" Bridgette put her hands to her hips.

"I don't know. The plans that we worked up for it make it pretty big. There's going to be a lot of trees used around the shore to build it."

"There's plenty of trees at least around Camp."

"Yes, there are. So I'm sure we're gonna get through this."

"But I guess the fear of failure is always prevalent right?"

"Yeah, I'd say so myself too."

"Well in the meantime, what can I help you with?" Bridgette offered politely.

"I'm glad you asked" Jasmine answered, "I was hoping someone could perhaps help me with a few plans I have come up with for what we may soon come across on the way out."

"Alright! Leave that to me! A surfer knows the water better than anyone!" Bridgette remarked, pumping her arm el la Rosie the Riveter.

With a strong confidence and a reassured spirit, the two girls got to discussing their plans. At the same time, things were happening with the one known in the show's continuity as none other than Zoey.

Her earlier actions were still in her mind - making her ache. Had she really been so mean to Dave? Was it really an issue, or was it something she ought to put behind her? She was in the eyes of many the nicest of the show's females second only to a few, was her treatment of Dave actually fair, or was not completely unjustified even given everyone's current situation. Soon enough, the aching of this issue in her head began getting in the way of her duty in keeping watch for any threats to the safety of the group. She knew she had to find some sort of way to put her mind at rest about it if she's actually to be a productive member of the escape team.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, for her, Duncan of all people was walking towards her at the very moment she turned back to the direction where the camp had been set up. Merely walking in her general direction, Duncan with a brow raised decided he might as well speak with her once the two had made eye contact.

"Something on your mind?" were the male's first words to her. They were words that made her grab hold of one arm and look down, before looking back up to him and finally nodding to confirm her answer. "Yeah, I can tell."

"I just….I just think I was too cruel to Dave back there."

"...why?"

"Because, well, I don't know. It felt right at first, but now it just, feels wrong. Very, very wrong."

"I fail to see why you care so much. I mean, being bad isn't all that, well, bad. Besides, who cares? The dude's a total crybaby anyway."

"And you've basically been a loner up until now."

"Well I'm not friends with everyone like you are. I frankly just need a break from their asses, plus I'd rather not deal with all the prison jokes from them."

"Are you sure that going to prison didn't…..um…..change you?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Are you-"

"Yes, yes I'm fucking sure, okay?!"

"Okay! Okay! You don't need to get angry with me…..I….okay, back to the subject, I just, I guess I just don't like hurting people's feelings."

"And I'm just telling you that you really shouldn't care at all. I mean, some of these guys probably get off on making puppies cry let alone each other. So why does it even matter? Besides, didn't that crybaby try to get Sky killed? Like, twice?"

"But still, he sounded like he was very serious and sorry about it, and that he didn't mean to…..which makes me feel bad about being so mean to him."

"Well, whatever, if you wanna apologize to him at a time like this be my guest, do what you want." Duncan answered as he began walking away from the redheaded girl, "I'm just gonna keep doing what I want."

"Do you have any ideas of what can be done in the meantime? Maybe if you compromised a bit more with the others we'd be able to get out of here." Zoey continued to press the topic.

Duncan actually stopped in his tracks when she spoke those words to him, he wasn't surprised that she spoke to him, but rather seemed to actually think about she was saying. However, his only response to her still was a flat:

"I doubt I'd be of any help, to be honest. They probably don't even think so, either."

"But you've constantly made it far in all the seasons of Total Drama and you have a lot of real-world experience. For better or for worse you could give us a lot of information we need." Zoey claimed.

"But what if I don't give a shit about, well, at least more than half of these people?"

"Then that's pretty selfish and cruel." Zoey folded her arms in frustration, "People could DIE tomorrow!"

"But we're trying to escape, right?"

"YES! So you should be helping us Duncan!"

"Why bother? Nobody even wants me or my help anyway. Besides, why don't you go help your boyfriend or go back to climbing that tree or whatever?" S

"I would like your help as a matter of fact. It'd do so much good for us." Zoey sounded noticeably more shaken at the mention of her boyfriend. To tell the truth, she almost felt 'naked' without him by her side, but she didn't want to seek him out because she knew that being look out was highly important. "But, I mean, if you really don't, that's okay….I just...think it's pretty selfish."

"Well I kind of have to be selfish if I don't want to go down without a fight. I mean heck, we're looking like prime targets to be ambushed by the enemy right now. Heck, what if they make us go after one another with some fucked up incentive? What'll trying to come clean with some information do for us then?" Duncan put his hands behind his back and stared at the sky.

Zoey found herself struggling to come up with a rebuttal to Duncan's words, though whether or not it was because of her desire to always be kind or because she genuinely thought he was wrong or misguided is debatable. Putting a hand to her chin, she did her best to reply to him again - despite the difficulty she found it being.

"W-well… I-I doubt we'd all be stuck in one place all at once for them to capture us. Some of us have split off after all…" she spoke as she practically gasped.

"I don't think that's a smart idea" Duncan remarked, "Just sayin'."

Zoey began to feel a bit fearful as the gravity of the situation and Duncan's ominous prediction began to overcome her. She was beginning to feel like she should either stay with Duncan for the rest of the day or go look for Mike again. It was intimidating, terrifying, and making her anxious and scared. She decided that before she should do anything drastic, she should see what Duncan's priorities were.

"Um… w-what are you going to do now? Would you like me to come with you?" She asked.

"I'm just gonna go be alone." Duncan replied as he finally looked over to her, perhaps out of concern.

"O-oh… fair enough. I am on lookout duty so… I think I'll go keep looking out." Zoey bit her lips and winced as she looked over to parts of the forest she was now wishing she wasn't looking at. Duncan's only response to her was yet another rather blunt set of words, this time in the form of:

"Yeah, you do that."

Zoey broke out in a rather frantic run, heading towards the direction that she hoped Mike had gone towards. Duncan made no such attempt to stop her at all. However, Duncan ultimately was not walking alone for long, despite having wanted to be so, as he was ultimately stopped in his tracks after a few minutes into his walk by none other than the likes of Jo - who seemed to practically appear in front of him out of nowhere.

"Mohawk! Where the heck have you been scampering off to?' She challenged.

"Why do you care?" Duncan nonchalantly remarked.

"I care because you are super suspicious, blowing stuff up and that kind of recklessness. Besides, you didn't tell anyone you were on lookout duty."

"Because I'm not?"

"Then what ARE you doing?!" Jo raised her arms up in exasperation.

"Staying away from the noisy bunch obviously." Duncan sassed her.

"I'm watching you, mohawk."

"Well don't forget to watch for anything suspicious at least."

With that, Jo ran off. Duncan realized he could've pressed Jo further on what she was up to and what brought her to the woods but he was not in the mood. All that he was in the mood for was being alone, in complete and total solitude. Of course he wanted to escape like everyone else did, but at the same time he didn't want to be bothered by them during the process.

With the other 'competitors', things were going about as well as one would suspect. Construction on a contraption large enough to fit everyone and escape by the morning or so was not quite up to par. Even the smarter contestants seemed to be struggling to both come up with practical, logical designs and make it a reality by the deadline. Not much progress had been made outside of materials being gathered, several scrapped designs, and revisions to said designs. It was frustrating for virtually everyone - but at the very least they had each other's company.

In particular there was the group that seemed to just randomly form out of Cody, Justin, Trent, Harold, Mike, Dave, Topher, Sierra, Junior, Lindsay, Tyler, Beth and Dawn. They were sitting off by themselves as everyone else was either working on the vehicle with some searching for the missing contestants by this hour - it was by then mid afternoon, and others also sitting by themselves in groups of their own.

Most of them did not however say much. Junior continued to be in silent shock after the events he had witnessed and hardly spoke at all, the only sound from him were the sounds of breathing. Even Sierra, who was there to console him, did not say much for once either. In fact, she seemed to devote more attention to Junior in an almost motherly fashion now than she did to Cody in the past - the reasons for which would be obvious to anyone. The others didn't seem to fare or feel much better - for instance, not a single one of them was smiling, in fact they seemed quite miserable.

"How much longer until we're finally out of this place?" Lindsay said in a bit of a whining tone, "I do not want to spend the night here!"

"Nobody does" Beth responded, before then letting out a sigh, "I just hope nothing bad happens to us before we finally get around to escaping."

"Don't worry" Topher assured her, "I'm pretty sure nothing bad's gonna happen! At least not us anyway! I mean, maybe if someone ran off on their own or something then there'd be problems but we're not doing that so….yeah."

As Topher said those words however, he was unaware of the fact that someone did indeed run off on their own. Namely, Zoey. She had been running off initially to look for Mike but somewhere in her mind, she realized she couldn't be dependent on her boyfriend in this kind of situation. So she instead was trying to find her way back to the others at the main camp area, even though she already had left her post as look-out, but as she was doing this she had unknowingly taken a wrong turn. This was a honest and easy mistake to make in such an environment as the island's dense forest but even so her panic only proved to increase as she continued both running and looking around in desperation for any of the others - especially once she came to the realization that she was going

"Mike?! Jasmine?! Cameron?! Duncan?! Anyone?!" she called out, hoping that she hadn't gotten so lost as to be out of earshot.

As a matter of fact, she was in earshot. Question was: Who had heard her? Ultimately Zoey spotted a figure coming from behind one of the forest's many bushes and they were doing a good job at keeping their identity hidden in the darkness of the woods. That suggested they weren't an animal and that they were a person but Zoey wasn't naive enough to go investigate yet.

"Hey, who are you? Are you one of-"

Unfortunately, the answer she got to a question she wasn't allowed to finish was the figure lunging for her and pinning her aggressively to the ground. They grabbed her neck with one arm and pinned down her left arm with their other arm. Zoey was struck with a choking fit and flailed her legs desperately. She attempted to scream but she took the chance to eye the figure with wide eyes and horrified realizations.

It did not take long for Nero to then rise out into her view, silently, not uttering neither a word nor a single sound as if he was a malevolent supernatural entity rather than a real being of flesh and blood. He was not trying to kill her it seemed but he was making sure she couldn't resist his strength - which itself also seemed almost superhuman in comparison to her own. She was, after all, in the position he wanted her to be. Or, perhaps, he was intending to kill her, but wanted to see how good she could fight back, or perhaps even prolong it just for pleasure. Yet again, all that she could see of his face - if he had any - were his eyes as the tribal snake-themed bandanna still covered nearly all the rest of his face. It was as mystifying as it was terrifying.

She tried with all of her might to punch and kick at him as well as scream, but he was holding her far too tightly. She could not see it, but she could feel her face begin turning blue as he clamped tighter down on her neck. He looked into her eyes not with rage or even happiness, but instead he looked at her as if doing away with her was simply business. An emotionless, careless look.

"P… p.. lea... ack…!" Zoey ultimately felt her consciousness slip away after being choked for a good two minutes and passed out, or at least that is how long it felt like to her. By the time her vision faded however, she was unaware that Nero had actually let her ago - from what was actually sudden jolt of pain in the back of his own neck.

It actually made him back away as if something was genuinely hurting him, but it was something that was not of the contestants' own doing. It was something different entirely. Later, he had one hand to his ear after his recovery, and was looking at Zoey silently for a few moments.

Without any further sound or interruption he nodded at her, picked her up over one of his shoulders, and began carrying her off to whatever his destination was. Zoey neither saw nor heard any of this, a true Sleeping Beauty. What lied ahead of her was unlikely to be a happy ending at the moment.