Chapter 3: Ice Ice Baby
We all went for breakfast in the dining hall, expecting to get a bowl of oatmeal. But. . . it wasn't edible at all. I sat beside Dawn, not daring to eat the food. I'd rather starve. Jo and Brick were competing with eating as Brick managed to choke on a spoon. Jo had to to help him cough it up.
Lightning ended up coughing from his food, choking as well. Damn, it's almost a porridge orgy in here.
Dawn got up and helped him, which really ended up only saving a cockroach that he was choking on. I was ultimately disgusted. I don't know how, but Cameron pissed off a rat which had these laser beams coming out of his eyes and spazzing at everyone making us jump out of the dining hall and run for our lives.
"What on Earth?" I shouted.
A loud scream echoed from inside the mess hall, and saw a refrigerator and Mike being tossed out of the cabin as he landed on the hard ground. There was no way that rat could've done that!
"Attention players," said Chris over the intercom. "Please head directly to the looming tragedy that is Mount Looming Tragedy. Your race begins now!"
An air horn went off. We all took off running towards the creepy looking mountain and stopped at the top of the hill. We all caught our breath.
"Did we win?" Sam asked. Cameron bent over behind a bush and puked up his breakfast. I cringed at the sight. Poor dude.
"If we were hamsters, I would've eaten you by now," said Jo. I heard a whistle and turned my head to see Chef and Chris next to a Jeep.
"Okay, Mutant food, on with the challenge," said Chris. "Part one is an uphill battle. You have to climb all the way to that cliff. First team to reach the top gets advantage in part two. You can climb with your hands or use whatever you find in the pile. Don't worry, this junkyard doesn't have a dog. It has a giant mutant beetle."
I stared wide at the biggest bug I've ever seen in my life. A cockroach bigger than me! It was at least eight feet tall. I shuddered. Bugs in general were so gross, but this looked like it came out of a nightmare.
"Big guy's a bit of a hoarder," said Chris. "His estate is full of useless crud and disgusting crud." The cockroach threw a toilet at us and we all ducked as it crashed somewhere. "That is, if you can get near it."
Chris gave a thumbs up and Chef blew into this ginormous horn. "It is on!" Chris shouted. We all took off running toward the mountain. I had to figure out how to climb the it. I looked around seeing Dawn struggling to climb as she was too short. Lightning ended up throwing rocks on the opposite players and made them all fall off the mountain.
//"See, Lightning isn't totally useless."//
I began to climb the cliff side, struggling with all my strength to pull myself up. It was difficult but I was doing it. That was, until I put my foot in a wrong spot and ended up slipping and falling on the ground, back first. I groaned in pain, feeling my lungs collapse. That hurt really bad.
//"Okay, cross off being physically active. I suck at that."//
I saw B dragging stuff around. I didn't know what he was doing. I got back on my feet and carefully made my way over. I didn't even want to talk I was hurting so much. He had this sofa on top of a toxic barrel with all this stuff I didn't know strapped to it.
"Baking soda? A broken chair leg? I was clobbered by a giant fire breathing beetle so you could collect this!" Sam exclaimed.
B beckoned us forward as he got on. We all shrugged at Sam, following B and getting on the sofa with him. Scott was barely holding on as he was still on the ground, leaning on the sofa. B connected some colorful wires together and we instantly went soaring in the air.
"Sha-boom, brotha!" said Lightning as we rocketed in the air above the other players. We crash landed on Chef.
"You did it, B! We won the challenge!" I said, grinning at him. "Ouch, hurts to speak." Everyone else praised him. Scott then fell on the mountain next to us.
"OW!" he exclaimed painfully.
"Slow your roll, natures nurse, I say who wins," said Chris in a jet pack. Jo laughed as if she was so smart. "The Rats! Thanks to B! See how I do that better?"
"Wait a minute, I got up here first." Jo said. "We won!"
"We won?" asked Brick coming up beside her with a dislocated arm. "Yeah!" He did a victory fist bump in the air and instantly regretted it. Yikes. I can fix that. I walked up to him and grabbed him arm. "What're you doing?" I shushed him and took his arm and stretched it out fast, correcting the dislocation as he screamed in pain then stopped.
"Hey, it's fixed! Thanks, Remi." Brick said.
"It's no problem," I shrugged, smiling at him, feeling my cheeks get warm. No, stop it, Remi!
//"WHY DO I LIKE PEOPLE SO EASILY?"//
"First team to the top wins. That means the whole team." said Chris. "You're still missing some members."
"Whatever," scoffed Jo. Anne Maria made it up the mountain finally, looking angry.
"Die, blondie!" she said and charged at Jo and missed, knocking herself off the mountain.
We were then taken to the second part of the challenge which was cold as hell. I was freezing my ass off in my minimal clothing.
"Greetings, ice teams!" grinned Chris. "Cold enough for ya?" Chris and Chef were dressed nicely warm and cozy while we all froze and shivered. "I'll take that as a yes. Time for part two of today's challenge! Capture the snow fort!" He stepped off his snow mobile. "To win you have to either demo the enemy's fort or capture their flag and bring it back to your own fort. Rats win the first part so they get first dibs on the fort."
There were two forts to chose from. A nice, pretty snow castle that looked like an actual castle. Or there was a trashy looking fort that looked like it could barely hold anything together.
"Sha-sha-peasy! C-c-c-castle!" Lightning said, pointing at the nice fort.
"Nuh uh!" Scott argued. "G-gotta be a trick! Nice on the outside, means nasty on the inside. We'll take the shack."
Everyone started walking to where he pointed and I wasn't having it.
"Are you serious? Let's get the one where we might actually win with a good, standing, fort!" I said.
"Sorry, Remi, but once it's said there's no going back!" Chris laughed. I glared at him.
"This sucks," I muttered under my icy breath.
We all walked towards the shitty fort, still freezing. I wanted a blanket and a steaming hot cup of cocoa.
"I hope it has a fire place," said Sam shivering.
We got to the fort and it was nothing like how Scott said it would be. We had a shovel and a good bit of snow balls.
"Great," said Sam. "The crappiness is thorough." Sam groaned and we all looked over at Scott, disappointed. He gave an apologetic smile.
"Listen up, players, here's how it works," said Chris through a bull horn, "use the shovel in each fort to fire your mystery collection of snow balls which you can fire at each there forts."
"Awesome! I took out my uncles left eye with a meatball this way!" said Scott.
"Why are they called mystery balls?" I heard Zoey shout in the distance.
"Because they all inflict major damage," said Chris. "Thanks to the secret weapon hidden inside each ball. But some will damage you. So chose wisely. Each team has to elect a captain to command and conquer. Starting now!"
"I'm captain. Live with it." said Scott.
"I think B should be captain. He's helped us out so much already." I argued. Dawn, beside me, nodded in agreement.
"Nuh-uh, I called it first!" Scott said over me.
//"He's so pushy and childish. . ."//
"B, Dawn, and I stay here. Lightning, Remi, and Sam capture their Maggoty flag." said Scott. I rolled my eyes.
"Um," began Sam, "maybe someone with a little more leg-foot coordination should —"
"AAANNDD go!" I heard Chris yell.
"Great! More running." Sam grunted as we ran off to get the other teams flag. I ran side by side with Lightning, catching up with his pace as Sam was lagging behind. That was until Sam slid past us on the ice.
"I'm thunder!" He called out. I glanced at Lightning in confusion.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked him.
"I ain't got a clue!" Lightning shrugged as we ran faster. Sam stopped sliding and the ice cracked underneath him, causing him to fall into the water and turn into an ice cube.
"We gotta slow down!" I called after Lightning. He nodded in agreement as we walked along the ice hoping not to end up the same way Sam did. We helped Sam the ice cube out of the water.
"Don't worry, buddy, Lightning will get you out." said Lightning in third person about how to unfreeze him. "After we win!"
A snowball hit directly at him causing him to fall. I couldn't help but laugh. That was until I realized he got knocked out, leaving me all alone to capture the other team's flag.
//"So much for all the help I get. . . Guess I'm on my own this round."//
The other team was going right past us. I had to act fast. Zoey and Brick were using Anne Maria as a shield as the snowballs weren't affecting her at all. I was getting closer to the team Maggots fort where it was melting drastically.
Jo was trying desperately to keep the castle standing by shoveling snow at the fort. A beetle was jumping on Cameron, the same one from earlier today. He was still holding onto the flag. I snuck my way inside and went up to Cameron.
"Sorry, dude, but I've got a challenge to win." I said and took the flag out of his tiny grasp.
"No, give it back!" Cameron said. Jo realized I was here and ran up to me.
"You're not going anywhere," she said.
"Not if you're in the way," I said. She grabbed onto the flag trying to pull it away from me but I wasn't letting go. "Let go! You're already losing! Your castle is melting!"
That only gave her the urge to try harder. We fought and fought over the stupid flag, until I kicked her in the shin causing her to double over and let go of the flag.
It might've been really mean and bitchy to do, but I didn't want to lose another member tonight where I could easily be booted off the island next.
"YES!" I shouted in victory as I began to run over to my team. But it was too late. Our fort completely melted to the ground. What the hell just happened?!
I ran up to my team, the flag still in my hands to understand what was going on with my team.
"Nice magnifying lens, Beverly," said Scott. "That's sabotage!" I gasped. No way could that be true. B was a nice guy who helped the team. There was no way this could be possible.
"Maggots win! And here's your reward!" Chris exclaimed. "McLean brand hot chocolate. Scald your senses with chocolatey goodness."
"But I got the flag!" I said. "I brought it back to my team!"
"True," said Chris smiling. "But your fort fell before you completely brought it back. Henceforth, the Maggots win."
I glared at Scott, sensing that he was up to something no good. I got the strangest feeling that he was behind it. It was crawling at my skin like a bad skid mark. He was up to no good, I could definitely feel it. I walked away angrily.
I found the ice-cube Sam and Lightning who was passed out by a snow ball. I slapped Lightning awake and he jumped up to his feet.
"Huh? What? Let's go! We gotta win this!" said Lightning, but before he ran off into the ice water, I pulled him back.
"Sorry, man, but we lost. The Maggots won. Again." I said, upset the loss.
"Sha-what! Who let this happen?" Lightning said. I shrugged.
"I honestly don't know," I didn't know for sure who caused this. There was proof that B possibly did this. But Scott could've set it up on our team as well. I wasn't sure. Something didn't add up.
Sam was wrapped up in a blanket on the porch outside of the cabin. The whole team was here except for B.
"I told you, B stands for bad man! And Beverly stands for Bad Man!" Scott said.
"I wonder what 'S' stands for then," I whispered to Lightning and him and I chuckled knowingly. All I could think of was 'Shithead'. Scott glared at us and we both just looked away.
"How can you trust someone who was so secretive that he doesn't even talk?" Scott asked. "He hates nature, you know." He said to Dawn. "I've read B's diary, he calls you fizzle." He said to Lightning. "And Remi. . . He saw Hamilton, and he called it distasteful and ugly."
No! Is that true?
I didn't know who to vote for. I couldn't tell if Scott was telling the truth or not. He's very good at that. You can't really tell if Scott is being honest or not. But if B really thinks that way about Hamilton. . . No, I couldn't believe it.
"After another jam pack day of losing, it all comes down to this." Chris said holding the marshmallows. "The following Rats are safe: Dawn, Lightning, Remi, and Scott. Which leaves Bev and Sam."
"At least I'm not going home first!" Sam said. I heard something in the distance. I saw Dakota on a glider crash into Sam beside me. Ouch.
"I hate when losers get all clingy," said Chris.
"Hey, Sam," said Dakota.
"Oh hi, Dakota," Sam said back. What is she even doing here? She doesn't even belong anymore.
"Uh Dakota, you're no longer competing. Remember?" said Chris.
"I don't care about the money, like I need it." Dakota said. "I just want — um — close up please. Thank you. I just want camera time. People need to see more of my sparkly adorable-ness if I'm going to get my spin-off reality series."
"You know how you flew into the sky last episode?" Chris said. "That means you're done. Forever."
"No, please, I'll do anything," said Dakota.
"Listen, princess, this is my show." Chris said. Then the theme song came on. It was his phone ringing. He picked it up and answered it. "It's your daddy. Hello, Mr. Milton. . . How much money? You're back."
"YES!" Dakota grinned. "Thanks, Daddy."
"As an intern!" Chris said.
"An intern? Noooo!" Dakota cried as Chef put her away.
"Aaaand, the toxic marshmallow goes to. . . B!" Chris said. "Time for the hurl of shame, buddy."
"Goodbye, B, I'll miss you." I said, giving him a hug as he hugged me back.
"Any final words, Beverly? Any words at all?" asked Chris when B was about to be catapulted away. B struggled to say something as if he was about to speak. But before any words got out, Chris interrupted him. "Times up!" He was shot into the air, and I knew that was going to be the last time I was going to see him.