Some Call This Fun (8/?)
Title: Some Call This Fun (8/?)
Summary: On a remote Brazilian island, 22 contestants are separated into 2 teams to compete against one another through a series of challenges. But they’ll soon discover that there are more challenges to be had than just the competition. Hook-ups, fights, partying, back stabbing, secrets and lies take center stage as the crew watches their reality show spiral into insanity.
This chapter: Dick is everyone’s favorite, many a ‘thumbs up’ are handed out and some of the contestants are hiding something, while some others need to be rescued. Not to mention that both of the team’s Captains are up to no good.
Meet the Crew
Meet the Contestants
Oh Captain My
Captain?
Capture The Flag
We All Fall Down
Tequila Is Not Your Friend
Who Can You Trust?
Disclaimer: I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. Any ideas or challenges borrowed from a reality show belong to the creators of that show, not me. I don’t own anything…so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!
“So why are you here?”
Speirs just stared blankly at Harry for a moment.
“I had nothing better to do.” He finally muttered.
Harry nodded, “Right but…I was hoping you might have some story. Like what you might do with the money?”
Speirs continued to stare.
Harry sighed. He was gathering what he felt were the more interesting contestants and trying to compile their backgrounds.
It wasn’t going well.
“So what are your plans if you win the money?”
Babe blinked rapidly, “Oh you know….I need to go somewhere. I uh….it’s kinda like…well you see I…uh…”
Harry gave Nixon a desperate look.
The host just shrugged.
“So why do you need to win this money?” Nixon asked the frowning man in front of him.
Liebgott shrugged, “I owe some people.”
Harry straightened from his slumped position-Joe’s answer having caught his attention.
Finally they were getting somewhere!
“Really?” he asked, “Why?”
Joe glared, “None of your fucking business.”
Well then….
The host and the producer sat silently in the empty room…trying to figure out how to proceed with their interviews.
“You know what the problem is.” Nixon stated.
Harry looked over at him in distress, “Do I?”
Nixon nodded, “Yep. They don’t trust us.”
“Well duh.”
Lewis stood quickly, “But we know someone very trustworthy don’t we? Someone who ANYONE would feel safe confiding in.”
Harry, knowing exactly where he was going with his line of thought, stood up with a huge grin. “That’s right! We do!”
Dick frowned, “I don’t think so.”
“Oh come on!” Nixon whined, trying his best not to stamp his feet like a petulant
child. “They like you better than me.”
“I wonder why?” Renee mused from where she was sitting next to Dick and eating dinner.
Nixon glared, “Shut it. At least I don’t go around tonguing the contestants!”
Renee smiled and scooted closer to Dick, “Yes but we all know why, no?”
As she said this she laid her head sweetly on the red-head’s shoulder. Dick just smiled, oblivious.
“I will kill you,” Nixon hissed at her.
“Lewis!” Dick reprimanded him.
“Dick! PLEASE!!! They won’t talk to us! I’m not asking you to be sneaky. Just conduct the interviews!”
Finally Dick sighed, “Fine.”
Nixon rushed forward, as if to give him a quick hug, but thought better of it, “Um…awesome! Thank you! Bye.”
“So Eugene- are you originally from New Orleans?”
The young man shook his head, “Oh no but I have family down there.”
Dick nodded and tried to ignore the camera that was probably making Gene uncomfortable, “So how did you wind up there?”
“Um I’m attending medical school there.”
“Oh so is that what you’re hoping to use the money for? Med school?” he asked, knowing already that this was not the case.
Gene paused, “Um maybe some of it. You said the prize money got larger?”
“Yep. Because of you Eugene.”
Gene shook his head in obvious confusion, “I don’t understand.”
“We know about your work with the clinic.”
Gene looked down with his lips pressed, “I told her that in confidence.”
Dick gave him a sympathetic smile, “This isn’t the best place to keep secrets I’m afraid. Renee means well. She thought your story might help bring in more money….maybe give you a forum to shed light on your situation?”
“I don’t want to use that as something to garner sympathy.”
“It’s not like that,” Dick told him, knowing that it was a lie. “So why don’t you tell me about it?”
Gene sighed, “It’s just… I help run this free clinic. We treat a lot of families affected by Katrina- people with little money, people with no insurance. People with nowhere to go anymore…we give them volunteer work. Something to do…but we just get more people every day and…”
Dick felt for the young man, “And the money just isn’t coming in?”
Gene nodded, “But if we can’t afford to keep running….”
“I understand.”
“So you told Harry that you owe people money?”
Liebgott gave him a bored look, “Yep.”
Dick tried to think of the best way to open up the conversation from that point. Asking him what the money was for right out would only get him the same reaction that Harry had received.
“Half a million dollars is a lot of money…” He trailed off hoping that Joe might pick up on something.
“Well I owe a lot of money,” Joe said and sunk down in his seat.
Dick nodded, that was something he could work with. “How much is a lot exactly?”
“$100,000.”
Dick coughed, “Wow...that’s…a lot. Who did you borrow from? Family?”
Joe laughed, “Nah…just some fucking assholes I met at work.”
Giving Joe a small smile Dick said, “Let’s try to keep the profanity to a minimum in these interviews okay?”
Joe shrugged, “Just some jerks I met at work.”
“Now what is it you do?”
“I work at a bar.”
“So you’re a bartender?”
“No.”
Dick frowned, “Okay. Is that your whole reason for coming on the show? To get the money to pay back…some…jerks?”
“Nah…I needed to get the Hell outta town you know?”
Now Dick was getting concerned, “Why?”
Joe made an annoyed face, “I don’t know? Why would I wanna get away from assholes that I owe a hundred thousand dollars? I pissed off the wrong people. Look can I go now?”
Dick nodded, “Um…sure. But we’ll probably bring you back in later okay?”
“Whatever.”
“Wait-so you ran away from home?” Dick asked the young man.
Babe nodded, “When I was younger. I kinda bounced around different relative’s places. Then I stayed with my Aunt for awhile when I finished high school.”
“So where are you living now?”
Babe looked around, “Uh here?”
“I meant back in the states. And why did you run away exactly?” Dick clarified his questions.
Babe shook his head, “Um…I couldn’t. Hey-can I go?”
Dick could tell that Babe was developing the crazy looks of one being backed into a corner, so he took mercy on him, “Yeah Babe you can go.”
“Thanks,” the young man sighed in relief and took off quickly.
____________
Harry listened to Dick relay what he had learned from some of the contestants.
“Gene’s obviously really troubled by everything he’s dealing with, and Babe is definitely hiding something. I’m positive he’s younger than he’s letting on. But he wouldn’t tell me why he ran away from home…I hope he wasn’t abused. Plus he was very vague about what he might need the money for.” Dick explained.
Harry nodded, “We’re looking over the tapes now. Hopefully something will come up. So far he’s been telling everyone he’s 19. What about Liebgott?”
“He’s the one that concerns me the most.” Dick frowned, “I think he could be in some serious trouble. What could he be so afraid of that he had to leave town? And what the heck did he need a hundred grand for?”
Harry shrugged and began to text furiously on his cell, “Well we’re going to try and find out. Tell the contestants we have a phone set up in a room so that they can call people now. You did good Dick. Maybe you should be a counselor or some shit.”
With that uncomforting information, Harry clapped Dick on the shoulder and walked away.
Now that Jo was set up in his room, he was pretty comfortable. His leg was propped up; his pain meds had kicked in. And he, Buck and Luz were playing cards. Of course…it was really obvious that Luz was rigging the deck so Jo would win.
“Would you look at that?” Jo raised an eyebrow as he looked at his cards, “I won again. Guess I’m on a hot streak huh Buck?”
Buck grinned and rolled his eyes at the man’s sarcasm, “That’s what it is.”
Luz blushed and stood up with an empty bottle of beer, “I need a refill. You guys want anything?”
Jo shuffled the deck, “Beer?”
“You got it. Buck?”
Buck shook his head, “I’m good.”
“Cool. I’ll be right back.”
They watched him go as Jo dealt the cards between them.
Jo looked down for a minute before saying, “I know you got a thing for him and you need to know that I’m not gonna get in the way of that. Okay?”
Buck looked over at him in surprise, “I never thought you were.”
Jo laughed, “Don’t bullshit me man. But I want us to be cool. And I want you to know that I mean what I say. Alright?”
Buck smiled, “Yeah. Yeah okay.”
There was a sudden knock on the doorframe. The two looked up to see Speirs standing there.
They exchanged confused glances.
Speirs studied them for a moment, “Buck can I have a word?”
“Um sure.” Buck stood and went out into the hallway.
Jo sighed and snuck a look at Buck’s cards. Huh...now that Luz was gone he was losing. He smirked and leaned his head back against the wall.
“Booored…” he dragged the word out, hoping that one of them would return soon.
“Talking to yourself already? You ain’t been laid up that long.”
He knew that sarcastic Philly accent.
Jo grinned and raised his arm up in greeting, “Yo Guarnrere. Get your ass in here. Keep me company.”
“Bossy much?”
Bill walked in all the way and plopped down across from Jo on his bed. He surveyed the cards, “You need anything?”
“Got a smoke?”
Bill smirked and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, “You bet.”
“What’s up?” Buck asked as Speirs led him outside into the night and away from the drinking and laughing group next to the pool.
“I know you’re the one voting for Toye. And I know why you’re doing it too.” Speirs informed him coolly as he pulled out a cigarette.
Buck was surprised, but kept it from showing, “So? You won’t tell him. It’ll just drive a wedge in our team.”
Speirs smirked, “You’re right. I also think that- despite his injury- he’s going to win tomorrow.”
Buck nodded, “Good. I hope so.”
“Now that’s a bit surprising.”
“I’m starting to think that maybe I was making a big deal out of nothing. With him and Luz. He’s being really cool about it.”
Ron shook his head, “He can play it as cool as he wants. Just because he tells you something- it doesn’t stop Luz from liking him.”
Buck frowned, knowing he was right, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I have an idea. I want you to think on this. Get a feel for how loyal you want to be
to Toye, and then come back and talk to me after tomorrow’s challenge.”
The blonde raised an eyebrow, “What if Toye doesn’t win?”
Speirs looked over at Grant for a moment, “He’ll win.”
Babe grabbed a soda from the kitchen’s overstocked fridge, forgoing the alcohol after the previous night’s incident. Heading towards the living room he saw Gene wave him over.
Babe smiled at the dark haired man and indicated that he’d be just a second. Spinning on his heel he took a detour outside and headed towards the pool.
Coming up behind Shifty and Webster who were discussing something he probably had no interest in; he clapped Webster on the shoulder.
Webster jumped slightly and then glared at him, “Yes Babe?”
“Can I borrow you two for just a second?”
Shifty shrugged, “Sure.”
He led them away from the pool and back towards the house, but not before snagging Grant by the back of his shirt, “You too.”
Nixon made his way over to Renee’s office, needing to brief her on her part in setting up tomorrow’s challenge.
Knocking lightly on her door he pushed it open, “Hey Renee I just wanted to tell you that after the one-on- OH MY GOD!”
Upon his loud and disgusted exclamation, Christenson quickly pulled his hand out from underneath Renee’s shirt and stood quickly.
“Well I feel much better now doctor-thank you.” He rushed out past Nixon and didn’t look back.
Renee glared at Nixon, “What is your problem?”
He gaped at her, “What is YOUR problem!?”
The woman rolled her eyes, “You just want everyone to be as miserable as you are.”
“Hey! I’m not miserable! Look I just wanted to let you know that part of tomorrow’s challenge requires you to separate Christenson from his team. Think you can do that without ramming your tongue down his throat?”
She gave him an unimpressed look, “I don’t know. Think you can make it a whole day without making an ass out of yourself in front of Dick?”
He gasped, “You whore!”
“Loser.”
“Bitch.”
“You’re just jealous.”
Nixon threw his hands in the air, “ARGH!”
Renee stood and ushered him out of her office, “Off to your empty bed.”
“Now that’s just cold.”
Grant, Shifty and David just stared as Babe slammed the bathroom door shut and turned on all the sinks and the shower.
“What are you doing exactly?” Grant asked looking as confused as David felt.
“I don’t want them to hear us outside.” Babe pointed at the closed door.
“Why’d you bring us here?” David decided to ask him flat out.
Babe clapped his hands together, “Right. Well this might seem kind of dumb to you guys but just indulge my paranoia.”
“Oookay.” Shifty drawled-looking amused as always, God bless him.
“Yeah,” Babe continued, “I just want to make sure that ALL of you are going to stick with me when I say I’m 19. I know I’m not, you know I’m not-but just roll with it. 19! Not 18! We cool?”
They all nodded dumbly.
Finally David said, “You just want to sleep with Gene.”
Babe flipped him off over his shoulder as he went to turn off the shower.
As he was leaving the bathroom David collided directly with someone in the hallway, and judging by the bony feel of the shoulder that stabbed him he figured it was Joe.
He braced himself for a tongue lashing that never came. He cautiously looked over to see Joe smiling at him.
Joe…smiling.
He looked so nice and...happy?
“Are you okay?” David asked the other man-in spite of himself.
Joe nodded, “Yeah…yeah I feel great.”
“Really?”
With another smile Joe looked behind him towards the stairs, “Yeah. As a matter of fact- I’m going to go for a swim. Wanna join me?”
David eyed him warily, as if he suspected it was all a ruse, “Sure.”
Joe rolled his shoulders and then grabbed the front of David’s shirt, “We need to get you a beer- man Web I would LOVE to see you drunk.”
David laughed and let himself be drug down the hall, not caring why Joe was so happy and choosing to simply enjoy it.
The Next Morning in the Arena
Babe looked over at Joe nervously. The other man was hunched over with his head on his knees, shaking slightly.
“Are you okay?”David finally asked out of concern, seated on Joe’s other side.
When Joe didn’t tell him to fuck off, he figured something was wrong.
“How can you be hung over? You didn’t drink anything.” Babe added.
Suddenly Dick was next to them in the bleachers. He crouched down next to Babe and gave Joe a concerned look.
“He doesn’t look so good.” The judge noted, “Why don’t you take him to see Renee?”
“I’ll take him,” David began to volunteer but Babe had already stood and put his hand on Joe’s shoulder.
“He’s got it,” Dick assured him and went back down to talk to their host-who was watching as Christenson snuck off with Renee.
Skip plopped down next to Don and copied his slouched position with a grin, “Easy money.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh Luz- betting on who’s going to win.”
“Who’d you bet for?” The red head asked smiling as Muck jokingly copied his movements as well.
“Grant- with Toye’s leg fucked up it should be pretty simple.”
“Bet that made Luz real happy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Skip- you observe nothing- Luz has it bad for Toye. B-A-D.”
“No way! I saw him macking on Buck last night!”
Don shook his head, “Truly clueless.”
Suddenly Sobel poked them both on the shoulder with an annoyed expression, “If you ladies are done gossiping…Don-someone’s trying to get your attention.”
Malarkey frowned and looked up to see Talbert waving his arms at him. He looked confused as the intern rushed over to him with a clipboard in his hands.
“Hey can I borrow you for a sec?” Floyd asked bouncing on his toes and looking a little nervous.
“That depends,” Don gave him a suspicious look, “are you going to molest me?”
Talbert was silent for a moment, “No?”
“Works for me,” Don slapped his hands on his knees and stood. He looked at Skip, “Be right back.”
Luz was only half listening as Nixon called Grant and Jo down and continued with his “blah-blah this team lost” crap.
Jo had really nice arms….
And a nice ass…
And a cute smile….
“Are you okay?”
He was snapped out of his thoughts by Perconte who was staring at him strangely.
“I’m fine. Why?”
“Cause you look kind of spaced out and you were starting to drool a little.”
He quickly put a hand to his mouth, “Seriously?”
“Yeah and there’s only room for one space cadet on this team and Blithe’s already got dibs,” Penkala joked.
“Hey,” Blithe protested softly, then stopped and looked around, “Wait….where’s Christenson?”
They all shrugged and turned their attention back to the arena.
Jo figured that by looking over the set up in the arena he could accurately guess what the challenge would be.
This time there was a circle created with rocks amidst the arena and a small pole in the center of the encircled dirt that had a rope running through it. Harnesses were attached to both ends.
He had a feeling he could figure this out.
“This challenge is not so creatively called Tug of War. In it each contestant will wear a harness that is attached to one end of this rope which is run through this central pole. The object of the game is to reach the outside of the circle.” Nixon explained.
“Obviously the hard part will come in the fact that you will each be pulling against one another. “ Dick added.
“Get suited up,” The host told them, “and remember the loser of this challenge is eliminated from the competition and must leave the island.”
“Yeah yeah,” Jo muttered and stepped into his harness.
“No need to be snippy,” the host shot back.
Grant tripped as he stepped into his harness. Jo frowned and walked over to help him out.
“You okay man?” He asked his competitor-giving him a strange look.
The other man nodded absently, “Yeah…yeah I just feel kind of funny.”
Jo nodded back, “Okay. Good luck.”
“Yeah. You too.”
“Alright,” Nixon cut in, “get ready.”
The two moved to opposite sides and Toye chose to crouch down. Hopefully he would be able to employ the same tactic that he’d used against Cobb during Push Me. Which was to hold fast, and let Grant wear himself out.
“Here we go!” Dick shouted- apparently they were taking a wise break from letting Nixon start them off, “At the signal.”
The air horn sounded and Grant bolted forward immediately only to fall face first in the dirt as he realized his opponent wasn’t budging.
Toye gritted his teeth and dug his fingers into the ground as he felt himself slide slightly backwards. Just had to hold fast…
Buck watched Luz watch their two team members. He slid over to him and nudged him lightly in the ribs with his elbow.
“You seem pretty calm,” he noted, “Especially considering how pissed off you were about it last night.”
Luz leaned back with a smirk, “That’s because Jo’s going to win.”
Buck frowned, “Everyone keeps saying that. How can you be so sure?”
The smaller man scooted even closer to Buck until they were pressed together and then he leaned in close, “Keep a secret for me?”
Buck nodded, “Of course.”
Luz leaned up to whisper in his ear, “I might have slipped Grant something.”
Buck’s mouth dropped open, “What?”
“Just some meds to make him drowsy-nothing serious. Just to make sure Jo won.”
Buck stared at Luz as the other man watched Grant struggling to reach the outside of the circle with a smug look on his face.
He caught him staring, “What?”
Buck grinned, “Nothing. I’m just impressed with your deviousness. It’s kinda sexy.”
Luz brushed his shoulder off, “You know it baby.”
Buck just laughed, not as pleased as he appeared that Luz had gone through such lengths to insure Toye’s victory.
He looked over to see Speirs raise an eyebrow at him and Buck could see the ‘I told you so’ that was hidden in his expression.
He sighed and turned back to the competition where sure enough- Grant seemed uncoordinated and weak- falling to his knees repeatedly and only slightly dragging Toye backwards.
Jo looked behind him as Grant fell for a fifth time, breathing heavily and struggling to move forward.
That’s when Toye got up from his crouched position and bolted for the border of the circle.
He made it about halfway before Grant, who was now being drug towards the pole, managed to get to his feet and struggled to pull Toye back.
Jo didn’t stop however and Grant was once again tripping to the ground. He scrambled to get his fingers dug into the dirt and stop Toye from reaching his destination.
At the sound of the bullhorn, however, he ceased his struggle. Toye was now lying on his back outside of the circle and breathing heavily.
Luz looked over at Buck with a cheeky grin, “What’d I tell ya?”
Then he hopped up and rushed down the bleachers.
Skip stared at the arena in despair, “How did he WIN? Don-do you realize how much money I
just lost?”
When he didn’t get an answer he looked over to where Don should have rejoined him at some point, only to realize he wasn’t there.
“Don?”
What the Hell?
As everyone gathered around the two of them, both to congratulate him and to say goodbye to Grant, Toye winced and doubled over-a hand going to his injured knee.
“Shit,” he grimaced and glared at it. How the fuck did he just win exactly?
Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder and four pairs of concerned eyes looking down at him.
He stared up at them, knowing he was caught, “Um…it’s okay?”
Luz made ‘pssh’ noises and waved his assurance off. Lipton shook his head and Bill actually got down on the ground to inspect his knee.
Finally Dick said, “Even so-Lipton why don’t you take Jo to Renee and get it looked at? Then the two of you can meet up with us in a little while.”
Bill and Luz exchanged confused looks, both knowing it’d make more sense for either one of them to take him to Renee. They stayed quiet as Lipton helped Toye leave the arena.
Meanwhile Grant was saying his final words into the camera.
“Yeah it sucks but I guess I kind of deserved it. I mean I let my partying get the best of me and it really screwed me over in the last challenge.”
“Is there anything you want to say to anybody?” Harry asked him from behind the camera man.
Grant nodded, “Yeah. Frank you’re the man- and Jo you never got pissed at me even when I deserved it. You’re a machine dude and you deserve to win. Good luck.”
Harry nodded, figuring that was it. But then Grant lifted a finger quickly, as if remembering
something.
“Oh and just so you know- Babe’s only 17.”
Harry pumped his fists into the air, “I KNEW it!”
“All right everyone- into the cars! It’s time for your next challenge!” Nixon called to them all- shooing them away from Grant and on towards the awaiting vehicles.
“Shouldn’t we wait for the others?” David asked noticing that a few people were missing.
“Oh they’ll be there.” Nixon promised, “Now load up- all of you!”
In the Infirmary
“Soooo,” Harry drawled, “how do you guys feel about being damsels in distress?”
Babe made a funny face, most of them sighed, and Joe glared.
“Not favorable,” Liebgott answered him.
“That’s too bad.”
The Challenge
Nixon stood with Dick in front of three paths that led off to three different parts of the island.
He caught Dick eyeing the pathways. “What?” he asked his friend.
The red head pursed his lips, “I forget which leads where.”
Nixon smiled deviously, “You’ll soon find out. Speak of the devil…”
They looked over to see the contestants approaching.
“All right,” Nixon spoke first, “you may have noticed that some of your fellow contestants are missing.”
He waited for the grumbles or dumb comments but received none. Nixon frowned as he thought that he might actually miss Grant’s consistent interruptions.
“They are however…part of this challenge,” The host continued, “Because behind us there are three different paths. Each trail will lead you to one of your missing team members-all of whom have been placed in potentially dangerous situations and require you to set them free by completing a challenge.”
“Now there is no rule as to who you go to rescue or in what order. But you only have 40 minutes to rescue as many of your teammates as possible. By the end of the challenge- whoever successfully rescues the most team members wins. Or, in the case that you are tied, whichever team completed the overall challenge the quickest wins.” Dick explained to them.
Nixon nodded, “The path to your left will lead you to Christenson and Babe. The path down the middle will lead you to Lipton and Malarkey. And the path to your right will lead you to Liebgott and Toye. Your time starts now.”
The Blue Team
Sobel knew from the moment that the challenge was explained that this would happen. He sighed and watched his team continue to squabble.
“You guys can go wherever the Hell you want. I’m going after Don.” Skip stated.
“Yeah well I say we go for Joe.” David added.
Sobel wanted to tell them that since none of them were the strongest player it didn’t really matter WHO they went for.
“Look we don’t know what the challenges are,” Shifty tried to reason, “What if they require a lot of people?”
“Like what?” Bill asked.
Skip shook his head, “We’re wasting time. I say we split up. That way we can hopefully get them all released quicker.”
“I don’t know,” Evans tentatively gave his input, “what if Shifty is right?”
Skip rolled his eyes, “Forget this. I’m going for Don. Anyone coming?”
Shifty nodded and the two of them went down the appropriate path.
David sighed and took off towards Joe’s trail, figuring that he might be the only one going down that way. He looked back in surprise as he heard footsteps following him.
Sobel shrugged at him, Evans on his heels, “I figured the other two would go for Babe. I thought you might want some help.”
David was shocked, but grateful, “Thanks.”
Sobel tried to give him a sincere smile. He knew two things- one being that out of their three options Liebgott WAS the strongest competitor. And two? That he was also Sobel’s least favorite person in the entire competition (not that he actually had a favorite- although he supposed that Evans was growing on him…like a fungus) and he couldn’t wait to send the little shit packing.
But the fact was that he needed allies at this point. Maybe even if they were only temporary. If they lost this challenge he might be able to get Webster to vote with him by reminding him that he was the only one who went to bat for Liebgott.
Hopefully it would work.
The Red Team
“Alright,” Speirs spoke up before any of them had the chance, “I’m not going to let this deteriorate into a squabble about who wants to do what. I know Luz wants to go after Toye, I know I want to go after Lipton…but that doesn’t matter. We’re going to take a vote on it. Understood?”
They all nodded, none of them really wanting to argue with their Captain.
“Good.” Ron nodded, “Now- how many for Toye?”
Luz and Buck both raised their hands.
“For Christenson?”
Penkala, Blithe and Perconte all raised their hands.
Speirs nodded, “And me for Lipton. It’s settled then- Christenson first, then Toye, then Lipton.”
Luz sighed, aggravated, “Fine.”
“Let’s go then.”
The Damsels (at least that’s what Harry’s calling them)
Babe looked down at the ocean he was suspended far above. He sighed and sat on the bottom of his cage thingy. He looked over at Christenson, who seemed to be inspecting the bottom of the metal cage- which they both knew was able to open up.
“How far down to you think the fall is?” Babe hollered over to him as they were separated by quite some distance.
He saw Burton shrug.
“I dunno!” Christenson hollered back, “But Harry said that Floyd survived it just fine!”
Babe thought back on the horny intern. “By whose estimation is that guy ‘just fine’?” he muttered to himself.
Sighing he adjusted the life vest he was wearing, knowing that for now it was just a waiting game.
Toye tapped his fingers on his leg as he looked around at the clear, plastic box he was encased inside. He felt kind of chilly- but he figured that was probably because the box was underwater.
He took a moment to be glad he wasn’t claustrophobic and briefly wandered if Liebgott was.
Since they were in two different tanks, he supposed he wouldn’t know anytime soon.
He looked up through the top of the water and saw the sun shining. Now all he had to do was wait.
They had said he had enough oxygen for four hours at least and that the challenge only last 40 minutes. So, considering how his knee still hurt, not to mention the fact that he’d just worn himself out against Grant, he figured this wasn’t a bad way to spend a challenge.
Nope…not bad at all.
“So let me get this straight.” Don said to Lipton, very aware of how his voice was shaking. “If they don’t complete the challenge correctly- I’m going to wind up sliding all the way down this slope, really fast I might add, on my ass?”
Lipton realized that it sounded pretty awful when you put it like that, but there were two cleared off paths for them to slide down before they would fall into the river at the bottom of the hill. The worst that could happen was that they scratched up their legs a bit.
“You’re wearing a helmet and a safety vest.” He offered to the blue contestant.
Don laughed nervously and continued looking over the edge of the small black platform he was standing on.
Lipton didn’t bother to worry, he had faith in Ron.
And you know…the rest of his team too.
Bill and Gene let out a sigh as they FINALLY reached the end of their path, only to see that the entirety of the red team was already there and working on freeing Christenson from where he was- whoa…
They looked out to see that there was a long cable cord set up to reach from their cliff overlooking the ocean- to another far away from them.
On the sturdy cable was a metal cage with a rickety looking bottom suspended above a very long drop into the sea and a miserable looking Babe sitting inside. He brightened up when he saw them and gave them a little wave.
Bill gave the kid a thumbs up as they rushed forward to the edge of the cliff where, in between the distance separating the two cages, there was a sign explaining what they had to do to free their teammate.
Bill peered at the sign:
As you can see- your teammate is currently suspended in a cage over the ocean. In order to get him to safety- your team must go to a large pole, to which the cable holding the cage up is attached. At the top of the pole you will find a wheel with handles on either side.
Your team must turn the wheel- which will slowly move the cage, and your teammate, towards the cliff and to safety. Once your teammate is safe you can hit the red button on the side of the pole and they will be released from their cage.
However you only have 6 minutes from the moment you start to complete this challenge. If you don’t- when your time is up- the bottom of your team member’s cage will fall open and they’ll fall into the water.
It’s a 100 foot fall.
Bill and Gene exchanged concerned glances and then shot uneasy smiles over to Babe.
Gene turned around quickly, slightly out of breath from running down their trail, “Where is
it?”
Bill spotted the pole and pointed to it, “There.”
They rushed over and both frowned when they realized that it was too tall and the wheel too high for either of them to reach.
“Shit,” Bill cursed and looked over to see that the red team was giving one another boosts in order to reach the wheel.
“We need more people,” Gene noted with a frustrated sigh.
Bill nodded, “Yeah.”
He looked over at the two trails off to the side that would lead them from this challenge to another. They each had a sign stating which trail would take them to whom.
“Look,” Bill said, “I’ll go to Liebgott and you go to Don. That way whoever finishes first can bring them back here.”
Gene nodded, “Got it.”
As Bill took off towards Liebgott’s path Gene turned back towards Babe and shouted, “We’ll be right back!”
Babe just nodded and Gene took off toward Malarkey’s trail.
The Red Team
Buck was giving Luz a boost, Penkala was giving Blithe a boost, Speirs was standing between Buck and Alex to make sure no one fell and Perconte was yelling at them the status of Christenson’s cage.
“He’s about half way here!” Frank hollered back to them.
Luz cursed as he and Blithe continued to turn the wheel with both hands. He was trying not to push too hard so he wouldn’t fall off balance and out of Buck’s grip.
This was harder than it looked.
“How much time do we have?” Blithe asked Speirs through his teeth as he continued to turn the wheel with the handle on his side.
“About 2 minutes.” Speirs told him as he looked at the stopwatch that had been provided at the site of the challenge.
“If I fall I’m going to kill someone!” Christenson threatened from his cage.
“Granted you don’t die from said fall.” Frank pointed out unhelpfully.
“Shut it Frank.” Luz called over his shoulder.
Finally, after what seemed like forever- the wheel stopped. They looked behind them to see that the cage was now above dry land at the edge of the cliff.
Christenson grabbed the metal bars and gave them a nod. Blithe hit the red button, the bottom of the cage dropped out and he hopped down onto the ground.
He grinned and dusted off his life vest, “Nice one guys. Who’s next?”
____
Your team member is currently at the bottom of the tank with your team color adorning it. He is encased in a large plastic box with enough air for four hours. However you only have 7 minutes to complete the challenge.
In order to free your teammate you will have to dive into the tank. At the bottom of the tank there are several different keys. You must find the right key to fit into the key hole at the top of the tank.
The key hole will be next to the controls that operate the box in which your teammate is encased. Getting the proper key will result in having your teammate lifted out of the water.
However for every wrong key you use, a hole will open on the side of your teammate’s box, allowing water inside.
The water CAN fill the box up before the 7 minutes is through.
“Alright,” David spoke stripping off his tee shirt and his shoes, “I guess if we all go in at the same time, the better the odds are we’ll get the right key.”
Evans nodding and took off his shirt/shoes as well. “It looks like there’s plenty of room in the tank for three.”
Sobel shrugged and mirrored their actions. He walked over to the side of the tank where a ladder led them to the top.
“After you.” He looked at David and motioned to the ladder.
David nodded, scaled the ladder and dove headfirst into the water. As he swum down to the bottom he saw Liebgott sitting in a clear box at the bottom-looking bored as usual.
Looking over the tank floor he began to spot the keys. He heard a noise above him and looked up to see that Sobel had entered the water.
He grabbed two keys at once and swam back to the surface. Turning the first key, he waited. But nothing happened.
Suddenly Sobel surfaced next to him.
“That one didn’t work.” The captain informed him, “The water’s starting to go into the box.”
David frowned and tossed that key out of the tank. He began turning the second one. Again nothing happened.
“Crap,” He muttered and went back under the water.
Swimming back down to the bottom he looked into the box to see that the water was at Joe’s ankles and that Joe was giving him an ugly look.
“Nice job!” Liebgott shouted through the glass, giving him a sarcastic smile and a thumbs up.
If David could have sighed, he would have, instead he just collected three more keys. As he went up he noticed that Evans was now in the water and Sobel was swimming back down.
So those keys hadn’t worked.
Once he got back up he tried the three keys. None worked.
David took a deep gulp of air and went back under, passing Evans on the way down. He noticed that the water was now up to Joe’s chest. Shit.
But suddenly as he was collecting another key- he heard a loud noise and the box began to move up through the water.
Evans had found the right key.
Relieved- David began his swim up to the surface.
When he reached the top he took a moment to catch his breath before he looked out over the side of the tank to see Joe already sitting on the ground-completely soaked in water.
“Sorry.” He apologized to the other man.
Joe looked up at him with a curious expression, “No it’s fine. It’s…great. Thanks.”
Then with a smirk he stood up and offered David his hand. David took it with a smile and slowly climbed out of the tank.
Joe pulled off his shirt and rung the water out as the others put their shoes back on. “So what now?” he asked them.
Just then they heard footsteps and looked over to see Bill jogging towards them. When he reached them he looked at the set up of the challenge in confusion and back at Joe.
“You alright?” He asked with a grimace- the sun in his eyes.
Liebgott gave him a nod, “Yeah.”
“You wanna help me with Babe?”
“You bet.”
“Great. Let’s go.”
Skip sighed as he continued to walk.
“Shit. Are all the trails this long?” he wondered out loud to Shifty.
“Nope,” answered a slightly panting voice coming from behind them.
They turned to see Gene running to catch up to them.
“How’d you get here so quickly?” Shifty asked.
Gene shrugged, “There was a connecting path from Babe. I guess it was just shorter.”
“You guys get him?” Skip asked him.
Roe shook his head, “No we needed more people. Figured we’d split up- help out and then go back with you guys.”
Shifty was sweet enough not to say ‘I told you so’.
Finally they began to reach the end of their trail and broke out into a run.
The Red Team
They came up on the second challenge just in time to cross paths with half of the blue team running in the opposite direction.
Penkala noticed that Skip wasn’t with them and wondered if he’d reached Don yet. He also noted that most of them were soaking wet. Awesome.
As they approached he noticed the two tanks of water and they all gathered around to read their instructions.
“You wanna sit this one out?” Speirs asked Perconte, remembering that he couldn’t really swim.
Frank shrugged, “Don’t have much of a choice do I?”
Christenson clapped him on the shoulder as he took his life vest off, “Don’t sweat it man. If we all got in that tank- we’d be bumping heads anyway.”
That said he chucked the vest, his shoes and his shirt and quickly ascended the ladder- Luz hot on his heels.
Speirs nodded, “He’s got a point. Penkala you sit this one out too.”
Alex frowned and was about to ask why but Blithe, Buck and their Captain were already gone.
Underneath the surface of the water Christenson was scooping up keys like crazy.
Luz swam over to the box where Toye was seated- his head back against the wall and his eyes closed. He tapped on the glass and Jo looked up at him.
Luz gave him a thumbs up and Jo just smiled. Just then the water began to pour in. One of the keys had apparently not worked.
Swimming around at the bottom Luz noticed that there were only two keys left- his other teammates had gotten almost all of them. So he grabbed them both and swam to the top.
“That’s all of them.” He said when he reached the surface.
Christenson nodded and hopped out of the tank, no more keys left to try.
A noise came as Blithe turned his key and Luz swam closer to the side of the tank and watched as the box began to lift out of the water.
Buck slung an arm over his shoulder, “See what a little team work does?”
“Alright be careful.” David warned as Joe stepped into his cupped hands.
Liebgott looked down at him as Webster boosted him up to the wheel at the top of the
pole. “What the Hell are you talking about? It’s like a ten foot drop- big whoop.”
David frowned, “Yeah but- weren’t you sick this morning? I thought you might not being feeling well.”
“Nah- I’m fine.”
“Well then what was wrong with you?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Joe dismissed the question.
“But-”
“Hey! Could you two maybe talk less and turn more?” Sobel asked from where he was holding Evans up.
They fell silent and Joe and Evans continued to turn the wheel furiously- their arms quickly growing tired.
“He’s almost all the way!” Bill shouted over to them, “You only got a minute left!”
Suddenly the wheel stopped abruptly.
“He’s good!’ Bill shouted.
Joe hit the red button and they all cringed as Babe fell to the ground hard, not having been prepared.
David let his hands fall and put them on Joe’s waist as the other man dropped down. He left them there for a moment as they watched Bill help Babe up.
Then Joe gave David an amused look.
“What?” Webster asked.
“Hands,” was the only reply he received.
Webster looked down with a blush to see that his hands were still resting comfortably on Joe’s hips.
“Sorry.” He muttered and pulled them away.
“Sure.” Joe said with a smirk.
“I am!” He protested- now thoroughly embarrassed.
Sobel rolled his eyes, “Who cares? We need to get moving.”
They all nodded and took off towards Don’s path.
Your team member is currently standing on a small platform extended roughly ten feet away from the edge of a very high and very steep hill.
In order to bring him to safety you will have to build a bridge to extend to him so that he can cross from his platform and back to solid ground.
In front of each stranded contestant there is a box with connectable platforms. They are easy to put together but it is up to you to decide how long it should be. There is no way to measure and you can only extend ONE bridge. If the bridge is not the right length when you extend it- you will have no chance to add onto it.
You only have 5 minutes to complete this challenge. If your teammate is not safely across by then- the platform will fall away and your team member will slide down the 40 foot slope on his back before landing in the river at the bottom.
They had already been building their bridge for awhile now. Skip wasn’t sure if it was long enough yet. Shifty figured it was but really- what harm could it do to keep adding to it?
“Wait- no…this interlocks onto this pole.” Gene corrected Muck.
Skip nodded and then looked over to Don who was trying very hard not to look down. “How much time do we have left?” he asked Shifty, who was holding the stopwatch that had been provided.
“One minute.” He informed them.
“Shit.” Skip began to add one more platform as quickly as he could. Don had already shown that he was afraid of heights during their second team challenge. He had to be terrified.
Shifty rushed them, “Y’all don’t have time for that- you have to put it out there now.”
Skip stood while he and Gene grabbed their bridge and rushed to the edge of the hill and towards Don.
Just as they were reaching the edge there was loud thud, a sharp gasp and Don wasn’t there anymore.
Skip dropped the bridge and rushed to look over the edge, knots of worry tying themselves in his stomach.
He didn’t see Don. Shit- he must be sliding really fast.
“Crap,” he muttered. Hmmm how to get through this without having Don be too pissed that he couldn’t save him?
“That’s not good.” Shifty noted with a frown.
Skip stood overlooking the edge with his hands on his hips. Gene approached cautiously.
“Hey,” He said standing next to Muck, “He’s totally fine. He’s probably going for a swim
right now.”
Skip nodded and then turned to Gene with a smile, “You know what? I think I’ll join him.”
“Wait- what?” Gene asked but received no answer as Skip rushed forward, jumped over the ledge and slid onto the path that Don had just taken.
Shifty came over to stand next to Gene. “What just happened?” he asked.
Gene shrugged, “Oh…you know. He just did something very…Skip-like.”
“Right.”
Don had just surfaced from the river where he had landed, still shook up from the adrenaline.
Sliding down the slope of that hill had been like going down one of those crazy water slides at an amusement park.
Only it was kinda muddy. Sure it had scared the shit out of him at first. But it wasn’t so bad. Skip probably would have enjoyed something like that more than he ever could.
Geez he hoped Skip wasn’t beating himself up over this.
All of a sudden he heard a shout.
“WOO-HOO!”
Then Skip came sliding off the edge of the hill that broke off about three feet above the water.
Limbs flailing through the air his friend came crashing next to him with a splash.
Don laughed out loud as water hit him.
Skip resurfaced with a grin.
“Did you have fun?” Don asked with a smile as Skip pushed the wet hair out of his eyes.
Skip continued to beam at him, “This island’s freaking awesome. I’m SO doing that again.”
The remainder of the blue team and the red team arrived at the place of the final challenge almost simultaneously.
They stopped abruptly, all of them trying to avoid smacking into each other.
Bill stopped in front of Jo. “Got a little wet I see.”
Toye eyed him with a smirk, “Stayed a little dry I noticed.”
“Yeah well I got to the swim party a little late.”
Jo looked over to the site of the challenge, “Looks like you got to this one a little too late too.”
“Huh?” Bill looked over his shoulder in confusion to see that Lipton was all alone, his platform the only one above the hill.
Jo gave him a shrug, “Don’t worry about it.”
Then he rushed over to join his team.
Babe walked over to Gene. “Hey.”
Gene looked up at him and smiled. “Hey…you look like you…”
“Didn’t fall into the ocean from 100 feet?”
“That’s exactly what I was going to say.”
Babe laughed, “You’re going to be a doctor right? Can you really make that fall?”
Gene nodded, “Sure. But it’s all about how you hit the water. You could easily break something, split your skin or bruise. At least from what I know. That’s why I was….uh….worried…about you.”
Babe smiled, “I’m okay.”
“Yeah…you are.”
Babe looked down at where Gene had been staring over the edge of the hill. “So what happened?”
Gene sighed, “Don slid down this hill and landed in the river when we didn’t complete the challenge in time.”
“And Skip?”
“He thought it sounded fun.”
Liebgott came up behind them, “Shit. That does sound like fun.”
Babe grinned at him, “I’m doing it.”
“Me too.”
“Wait-” Gene again wasn’t allowed to finish as the two of them took off.
Webster rushed over to him and stared down the hill in astonishment. “Did they just-”
“Yep.” Gene answered.
The two exchanged looks.
“Want to?” Webster asked.
Gene shrugged, “Why not?”
“Wait so as long as we do this right- then we win?” Alex asked once more for clarification.
“Very good Penk.” Luz teased as they read over the instructions.
Buck frowned as he and Speirs looked the sign over. “It doesn’t tell us much does it?”
Speirs shook his head before turning back to his team. “Okay Blithe I want you to keep time.
When we have exactly one minute and thirty seconds left- you tell us. No matter what- when Blithe says that time we stop putting the bridge together and we set it out there. He has to have enough time to get over here. Otherwise- let’s try to make it as long as possible.”
They all nodded and got to work.
At the bottom of the hill Shifty, Roe, Webster, Joe, Babe, Don and Skip were all swimming around in the river.
“So- think we lost?” Babe asked.
Skip shrugged and splashed some water at him, “Well if they can’t complete the challenge correctly we would have lost this challenge FIRST and therefore- have won.”
Joe made a face. “That makes almost no sense.”
Gene looked at the second path coming from the hill, “We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Hey guys?” Babe got their attention again.
They all looked over.
“What?” Webster asked.
“You don’t think there are like- snakes or anything that bites in this water do you?”
Shifty shook his head, “Oh I don’t think so. Webster?”
“Of course not,” David shook his head as well.
Babe sighed and looked away.
David caught Shifty’s eyes and made a face. “Snakes.” He mouthed to him and made a wavy hand gesture.
Shifty frowned and looked down at the water with a grimace.
“Minute and thirty seconds!” Blithe yelled out to his team who were quickly assembling what now looked to be a very long bridge.
“That’s it.” Speirs cut them off with a wave and stood. They all lifted the bridge together and brought it closer to the edge.
Sitting one end on the ground they pushed the other into the air and aimed it towards Lipton’s platform.
“Just try to grab it.” Jo shouted to the stranded man, who nodded.
It was certainly long enough. They all held onto their end and lowered the bridge onto the platform like a draw bridge.
Lipton checked to make sure it was secure.
“Come on, come on!” Speirs waved him over.
Lipton crossed the bridge wearily at first, but once he realized it wasn’t going to crap out on him, he rushed over.
He sighed when his feet hit the ground.
Blithe hit the stop watch and looked at them all with big eyes, “Forty seconds left to spare.”
They all cheered.
Lipton smiled at their excitement, “Never had a doubt.”
“Dude- were you freaked out?” Christenson asked, “Because I SO was. I was like HANGING a hundred feet over the ocean.”
Perconte rolled his eyes, “It’s not a competition.”
“Actually it is.” Luz joked.
Lipton shook his head, “Nah…it wasn’t really scary. Actually- it looks like the blue team enjoyed it.”
They all looked over to see there were only three blue members still standing there.
“Where’s your team?” Speirs asked Sobel with a small smile.
Sobel rolled his eyes, “Swimming around in a river like a bunch of children.”
He looked next to him where Evans was looking between him and the hill excitedly and bouncing
up and down.
Sobel sighed, “Oh just go.”
“Thanks.” The blond man grinned and rushed to slide down the hill.
Bill caught Jo’s eyes and jerked his head after Evans. Jo got the message.
“Oh Hell yeah.” He grinned and jogged over, jokingly shoving Bill to the side and sliding down the hill first.
Luz frowned as he watched them.
Nixon looked over the gathered contestants.
“Sobel...you’re missing…well- everyone.”
The blue Captain rolled his eyes, “Yep.”
“Right…well since your team failed to rescue Don you are the losers of this challenge. Have your team assembled on the beach in four hours to cast your votes.”
Sobel sighed. Great…now his head would be on the chopping block. He knew there was no way Liebgott and Bill WOULDN”T vote for him over the others.
He would just have to manipulate the votes somehow…
He grinned as an idea popped into his head.
He knew just the thing. This shouldn’t be too difficult at all.
If there was one thing that this challenge had proven- it was that some people on his team would do anything to protect the people they were coming to care about.
No…this shouldn’t be too hard at all.
A/N: So that was long in length...and long overdue. And had a lot of highly improbable and unrealistic crap in it. I mean I have NO idea if you can fall 100 feet and have any of those things happen to you.
Although...coming from a military family I probably could have asked either of my aviator parents (one of whom has actually had to jump into the ocean from a helicopter)...but I'm lazy and figured "It's a fic so whatever!".
Hope y'all liked this chapter. For reasons unknown it took forever to finish.
Summary: On a remote Brazilian island, 22 contestants are separated into 2 teams to compete against one another through a series of challenges. But they’ll soon discover that there are more challenges to be had than just the competition. Hook-ups, fights, partying, back stabbing, secrets and lies take center stage as the crew watches their reality show spiral into insanity.
This chapter: Dick is everyone’s favorite, many a ‘thumbs up’ are handed out and some of the contestants are hiding something, while some others need to be rescued. Not to mention that both of the team’s Captains are up to no good.
Meet the Crew
Meet the Contestants
Oh Captain My
Captain?
Capture The Flag
We All Fall Down
Tequila Is Not Your Friend
Who Can You Trust?
Disclaimer: I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. Any ideas or challenges borrowed from a reality show belong to the creators of that show, not me. I don’t own anything…so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!
“So why are you here?”
Speirs just stared blankly at Harry for a moment.
“I had nothing better to do.” He finally muttered.
Harry nodded, “Right but…I was hoping you might have some story. Like what you might do with the money?”
Speirs continued to stare.
Harry sighed. He was gathering what he felt were the more interesting contestants and trying to compile their backgrounds.
It wasn’t going well.
“So what are your plans if you win the money?”
Babe blinked rapidly, “Oh you know….I need to go somewhere. I uh….it’s kinda like…well you see I…uh…”
Harry gave Nixon a desperate look.
The host just shrugged.
“So why do you need to win this money?” Nixon asked the frowning man in front of him.
Liebgott shrugged, “I owe some people.”
Harry straightened from his slumped position-Joe’s answer having caught his attention.
Finally they were getting somewhere!
“Really?” he asked, “Why?”
Joe glared, “None of your fucking business.”
Well then….
The host and the producer sat silently in the empty room…trying to figure out how to proceed with their interviews.
“You know what the problem is.” Nixon stated.
Harry looked over at him in distress, “Do I?”
Nixon nodded, “Yep. They don’t trust us.”
“Well duh.”
Lewis stood quickly, “But we know someone very trustworthy don’t we? Someone who ANYONE would feel safe confiding in.”
Harry, knowing exactly where he was going with his line of thought, stood up with a huge grin. “That’s right! We do!”
Dick frowned, “I don’t think so.”
“Oh come on!” Nixon whined, trying his best not to stamp his feet like a petulant
child. “They like you better than me.”
“I wonder why?” Renee mused from where she was sitting next to Dick and eating dinner.
Nixon glared, “Shut it. At least I don’t go around tonguing the contestants!”
Renee smiled and scooted closer to Dick, “Yes but we all know why, no?”
As she said this she laid her head sweetly on the red-head’s shoulder. Dick just smiled, oblivious.
“I will kill you,” Nixon hissed at her.
“Lewis!” Dick reprimanded him.
“Dick! PLEASE!!! They won’t talk to us! I’m not asking you to be sneaky. Just conduct the interviews!”
Finally Dick sighed, “Fine.”
Nixon rushed forward, as if to give him a quick hug, but thought better of it, “Um…awesome! Thank you! Bye.”
“So Eugene- are you originally from New Orleans?”
The young man shook his head, “Oh no but I have family down there.”
Dick nodded and tried to ignore the camera that was probably making Gene uncomfortable, “So how did you wind up there?”
“Um I’m attending medical school there.”
“Oh so is that what you’re hoping to use the money for? Med school?” he asked, knowing already that this was not the case.
Gene paused, “Um maybe some of it. You said the prize money got larger?”
“Yep. Because of you Eugene.”
Gene shook his head in obvious confusion, “I don’t understand.”
“We know about your work with the clinic.”
Gene looked down with his lips pressed, “I told her that in confidence.”
Dick gave him a sympathetic smile, “This isn’t the best place to keep secrets I’m afraid. Renee means well. She thought your story might help bring in more money….maybe give you a forum to shed light on your situation?”
“I don’t want to use that as something to garner sympathy.”
“It’s not like that,” Dick told him, knowing that it was a lie. “So why don’t you tell me about it?”
Gene sighed, “It’s just… I help run this free clinic. We treat a lot of families affected by Katrina- people with little money, people with no insurance. People with nowhere to go anymore…we give them volunteer work. Something to do…but we just get more people every day and…”
Dick felt for the young man, “And the money just isn’t coming in?”
Gene nodded, “But if we can’t afford to keep running….”
“I understand.”
“So you told Harry that you owe people money?”
Liebgott gave him a bored look, “Yep.”
Dick tried to think of the best way to open up the conversation from that point. Asking him what the money was for right out would only get him the same reaction that Harry had received.
“Half a million dollars is a lot of money…” He trailed off hoping that Joe might pick up on something.
“Well I owe a lot of money,” Joe said and sunk down in his seat.
Dick nodded, that was something he could work with. “How much is a lot exactly?”
“$100,000.”
Dick coughed, “Wow...that’s…a lot. Who did you borrow from? Family?”
Joe laughed, “Nah…just some fucking assholes I met at work.”
Giving Joe a small smile Dick said, “Let’s try to keep the profanity to a minimum in these interviews okay?”
Joe shrugged, “Just some jerks I met at work.”
“Now what is it you do?”
“I work at a bar.”
“So you’re a bartender?”
“No.”
Dick frowned, “Okay. Is that your whole reason for coming on the show? To get the money to pay back…some…jerks?”
“Nah…I needed to get the Hell outta town you know?”
Now Dick was getting concerned, “Why?”
Joe made an annoyed face, “I don’t know? Why would I wanna get away from assholes that I owe a hundred thousand dollars? I pissed off the wrong people. Look can I go now?”
Dick nodded, “Um…sure. But we’ll probably bring you back in later okay?”
“Whatever.”
“Wait-so you ran away from home?” Dick asked the young man.
Babe nodded, “When I was younger. I kinda bounced around different relative’s places. Then I stayed with my Aunt for awhile when I finished high school.”
“So where are you living now?”
Babe looked around, “Uh here?”
“I meant back in the states. And why did you run away exactly?” Dick clarified his questions.
Babe shook his head, “Um…I couldn’t. Hey-can I go?”
Dick could tell that Babe was developing the crazy looks of one being backed into a corner, so he took mercy on him, “Yeah Babe you can go.”
“Thanks,” the young man sighed in relief and took off quickly.
____________
Harry listened to Dick relay what he had learned from some of the contestants.
“Gene’s obviously really troubled by everything he’s dealing with, and Babe is definitely hiding something. I’m positive he’s younger than he’s letting on. But he wouldn’t tell me why he ran away from home…I hope he wasn’t abused. Plus he was very vague about what he might need the money for.” Dick explained.
Harry nodded, “We’re looking over the tapes now. Hopefully something will come up. So far he’s been telling everyone he’s 19. What about Liebgott?”
“He’s the one that concerns me the most.” Dick frowned, “I think he could be in some serious trouble. What could he be so afraid of that he had to leave town? And what the heck did he need a hundred grand for?”
Harry shrugged and began to text furiously on his cell, “Well we’re going to try and find out. Tell the contestants we have a phone set up in a room so that they can call people now. You did good Dick. Maybe you should be a counselor or some shit.”
With that uncomforting information, Harry clapped Dick on the shoulder and walked away.
Now that Jo was set up in his room, he was pretty comfortable. His leg was propped up; his pain meds had kicked in. And he, Buck and Luz were playing cards. Of course…it was really obvious that Luz was rigging the deck so Jo would win.
“Would you look at that?” Jo raised an eyebrow as he looked at his cards, “I won again. Guess I’m on a hot streak huh Buck?”
Buck grinned and rolled his eyes at the man’s sarcasm, “That’s what it is.”
Luz blushed and stood up with an empty bottle of beer, “I need a refill. You guys want anything?”
Jo shuffled the deck, “Beer?”
“You got it. Buck?”
Buck shook his head, “I’m good.”
“Cool. I’ll be right back.”
They watched him go as Jo dealt the cards between them.
Jo looked down for a minute before saying, “I know you got a thing for him and you need to know that I’m not gonna get in the way of that. Okay?”
Buck looked over at him in surprise, “I never thought you were.”
Jo laughed, “Don’t bullshit me man. But I want us to be cool. And I want you to know that I mean what I say. Alright?”
Buck smiled, “Yeah. Yeah okay.”
There was a sudden knock on the doorframe. The two looked up to see Speirs standing there.
They exchanged confused glances.
Speirs studied them for a moment, “Buck can I have a word?”
“Um sure.” Buck stood and went out into the hallway.
Jo sighed and snuck a look at Buck’s cards. Huh...now that Luz was gone he was losing. He smirked and leaned his head back against the wall.
“Booored…” he dragged the word out, hoping that one of them would return soon.
“Talking to yourself already? You ain’t been laid up that long.”
He knew that sarcastic Philly accent.
Jo grinned and raised his arm up in greeting, “Yo Guarnrere. Get your ass in here. Keep me company.”
“Bossy much?”
Bill walked in all the way and plopped down across from Jo on his bed. He surveyed the cards, “You need anything?”
“Got a smoke?”
Bill smirked and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, “You bet.”
“What’s up?” Buck asked as Speirs led him outside into the night and away from the drinking and laughing group next to the pool.
“I know you’re the one voting for Toye. And I know why you’re doing it too.” Speirs informed him coolly as he pulled out a cigarette.
Buck was surprised, but kept it from showing, “So? You won’t tell him. It’ll just drive a wedge in our team.”
Speirs smirked, “You’re right. I also think that- despite his injury- he’s going to win tomorrow.”
Buck nodded, “Good. I hope so.”
“Now that’s a bit surprising.”
“I’m starting to think that maybe I was making a big deal out of nothing. With him and Luz. He’s being really cool about it.”
Ron shook his head, “He can play it as cool as he wants. Just because he tells you something- it doesn’t stop Luz from liking him.”
Buck frowned, knowing he was right, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I have an idea. I want you to think on this. Get a feel for how loyal you want to be
to Toye, and then come back and talk to me after tomorrow’s challenge.”
The blonde raised an eyebrow, “What if Toye doesn’t win?”
Speirs looked over at Grant for a moment, “He’ll win.”
Babe grabbed a soda from the kitchen’s overstocked fridge, forgoing the alcohol after the previous night’s incident. Heading towards the living room he saw Gene wave him over.
Babe smiled at the dark haired man and indicated that he’d be just a second. Spinning on his heel he took a detour outside and headed towards the pool.
Coming up behind Shifty and Webster who were discussing something he probably had no interest in; he clapped Webster on the shoulder.
Webster jumped slightly and then glared at him, “Yes Babe?”
“Can I borrow you two for just a second?”
Shifty shrugged, “Sure.”
He led them away from the pool and back towards the house, but not before snagging Grant by the back of his shirt, “You too.”
Nixon made his way over to Renee’s office, needing to brief her on her part in setting up tomorrow’s challenge.
Knocking lightly on her door he pushed it open, “Hey Renee I just wanted to tell you that after the one-on- OH MY GOD!”
Upon his loud and disgusted exclamation, Christenson quickly pulled his hand out from underneath Renee’s shirt and stood quickly.
“Well I feel much better now doctor-thank you.” He rushed out past Nixon and didn’t look back.
Renee glared at Nixon, “What is your problem?”
He gaped at her, “What is YOUR problem!?”
The woman rolled her eyes, “You just want everyone to be as miserable as you are.”
“Hey! I’m not miserable! Look I just wanted to let you know that part of tomorrow’s challenge requires you to separate Christenson from his team. Think you can do that without ramming your tongue down his throat?”
She gave him an unimpressed look, “I don’t know. Think you can make it a whole day without making an ass out of yourself in front of Dick?”
He gasped, “You whore!”
“Loser.”
“Bitch.”
“You’re just jealous.”
Nixon threw his hands in the air, “ARGH!”
Renee stood and ushered him out of her office, “Off to your empty bed.”
“Now that’s just cold.”
Grant, Shifty and David just stared as Babe slammed the bathroom door shut and turned on all the sinks and the shower.
“What are you doing exactly?” Grant asked looking as confused as David felt.
“I don’t want them to hear us outside.” Babe pointed at the closed door.
“Why’d you bring us here?” David decided to ask him flat out.
Babe clapped his hands together, “Right. Well this might seem kind of dumb to you guys but just indulge my paranoia.”
“Oookay.” Shifty drawled-looking amused as always, God bless him.
“Yeah,” Babe continued, “I just want to make sure that ALL of you are going to stick with me when I say I’m 19. I know I’m not, you know I’m not-but just roll with it. 19! Not 18! We cool?”
They all nodded dumbly.
Finally David said, “You just want to sleep with Gene.”
Babe flipped him off over his shoulder as he went to turn off the shower.
As he was leaving the bathroom David collided directly with someone in the hallway, and judging by the bony feel of the shoulder that stabbed him he figured it was Joe.
He braced himself for a tongue lashing that never came. He cautiously looked over to see Joe smiling at him.
Joe…smiling.
He looked so nice and...happy?
“Are you okay?” David asked the other man-in spite of himself.
Joe nodded, “Yeah…yeah I feel great.”
“Really?”
With another smile Joe looked behind him towards the stairs, “Yeah. As a matter of fact- I’m going to go for a swim. Wanna join me?”
David eyed him warily, as if he suspected it was all a ruse, “Sure.”
Joe rolled his shoulders and then grabbed the front of David’s shirt, “We need to get you a beer- man Web I would LOVE to see you drunk.”
David laughed and let himself be drug down the hall, not caring why Joe was so happy and choosing to simply enjoy it.
The Next Morning in the Arena
Babe looked over at Joe nervously. The other man was hunched over with his head on his knees, shaking slightly.
“Are you okay?”David finally asked out of concern, seated on Joe’s other side.
When Joe didn’t tell him to fuck off, he figured something was wrong.
“How can you be hung over? You didn’t drink anything.” Babe added.
Suddenly Dick was next to them in the bleachers. He crouched down next to Babe and gave Joe a concerned look.
“He doesn’t look so good.” The judge noted, “Why don’t you take him to see Renee?”
“I’ll take him,” David began to volunteer but Babe had already stood and put his hand on Joe’s shoulder.
“He’s got it,” Dick assured him and went back down to talk to their host-who was watching as Christenson snuck off with Renee.
Skip plopped down next to Don and copied his slouched position with a grin, “Easy money.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh Luz- betting on who’s going to win.”
“Who’d you bet for?” The red head asked smiling as Muck jokingly copied his movements as well.
“Grant- with Toye’s leg fucked up it should be pretty simple.”
“Bet that made Luz real happy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Skip- you observe nothing- Luz has it bad for Toye. B-A-D.”
“No way! I saw him macking on Buck last night!”
Don shook his head, “Truly clueless.”
Suddenly Sobel poked them both on the shoulder with an annoyed expression, “If you ladies are done gossiping…Don-someone’s trying to get your attention.”
Malarkey frowned and looked up to see Talbert waving his arms at him. He looked confused as the intern rushed over to him with a clipboard in his hands.
“Hey can I borrow you for a sec?” Floyd asked bouncing on his toes and looking a little nervous.
“That depends,” Don gave him a suspicious look, “are you going to molest me?”
Talbert was silent for a moment, “No?”
“Works for me,” Don slapped his hands on his knees and stood. He looked at Skip, “Be right back.”
Luz was only half listening as Nixon called Grant and Jo down and continued with his “blah-blah this team lost” crap.
Jo had really nice arms….
And a nice ass…
And a cute smile….
“Are you okay?”
He was snapped out of his thoughts by Perconte who was staring at him strangely.
“I’m fine. Why?”
“Cause you look kind of spaced out and you were starting to drool a little.”
He quickly put a hand to his mouth, “Seriously?”
“Yeah and there’s only room for one space cadet on this team and Blithe’s already got dibs,” Penkala joked.
“Hey,” Blithe protested softly, then stopped and looked around, “Wait….where’s Christenson?”
They all shrugged and turned their attention back to the arena.
Jo figured that by looking over the set up in the arena he could accurately guess what the challenge would be.
This time there was a circle created with rocks amidst the arena and a small pole in the center of the encircled dirt that had a rope running through it. Harnesses were attached to both ends.
He had a feeling he could figure this out.
“This challenge is not so creatively called Tug of War. In it each contestant will wear a harness that is attached to one end of this rope which is run through this central pole. The object of the game is to reach the outside of the circle.” Nixon explained.
“Obviously the hard part will come in the fact that you will each be pulling against one another. “ Dick added.
“Get suited up,” The host told them, “and remember the loser of this challenge is eliminated from the competition and must leave the island.”
“Yeah yeah,” Jo muttered and stepped into his harness.
“No need to be snippy,” the host shot back.
Grant tripped as he stepped into his harness. Jo frowned and walked over to help him out.
“You okay man?” He asked his competitor-giving him a strange look.
The other man nodded absently, “Yeah…yeah I just feel kind of funny.”
Jo nodded back, “Okay. Good luck.”
“Yeah. You too.”
“Alright,” Nixon cut in, “get ready.”
The two moved to opposite sides and Toye chose to crouch down. Hopefully he would be able to employ the same tactic that he’d used against Cobb during Push Me. Which was to hold fast, and let Grant wear himself out.
“Here we go!” Dick shouted- apparently they were taking a wise break from letting Nixon start them off, “At the signal.”
The air horn sounded and Grant bolted forward immediately only to fall face first in the dirt as he realized his opponent wasn’t budging.
Toye gritted his teeth and dug his fingers into the ground as he felt himself slide slightly backwards. Just had to hold fast…
Buck watched Luz watch their two team members. He slid over to him and nudged him lightly in the ribs with his elbow.
“You seem pretty calm,” he noted, “Especially considering how pissed off you were about it last night.”
Luz leaned back with a smirk, “That’s because Jo’s going to win.”
Buck frowned, “Everyone keeps saying that. How can you be so sure?”
The smaller man scooted even closer to Buck until they were pressed together and then he leaned in close, “Keep a secret for me?”
Buck nodded, “Of course.”
Luz leaned up to whisper in his ear, “I might have slipped Grant something.”
Buck’s mouth dropped open, “What?”
“Just some meds to make him drowsy-nothing serious. Just to make sure Jo won.”
Buck stared at Luz as the other man watched Grant struggling to reach the outside of the circle with a smug look on his face.
He caught him staring, “What?”
Buck grinned, “Nothing. I’m just impressed with your deviousness. It’s kinda sexy.”
Luz brushed his shoulder off, “You know it baby.”
Buck just laughed, not as pleased as he appeared that Luz had gone through such lengths to insure Toye’s victory.
He looked over to see Speirs raise an eyebrow at him and Buck could see the ‘I told you so’ that was hidden in his expression.
He sighed and turned back to the competition where sure enough- Grant seemed uncoordinated and weak- falling to his knees repeatedly and only slightly dragging Toye backwards.
Jo looked behind him as Grant fell for a fifth time, breathing heavily and struggling to move forward.
That’s when Toye got up from his crouched position and bolted for the border of the circle.
He made it about halfway before Grant, who was now being drug towards the pole, managed to get to his feet and struggled to pull Toye back.
Jo didn’t stop however and Grant was once again tripping to the ground. He scrambled to get his fingers dug into the dirt and stop Toye from reaching his destination.
At the sound of the bullhorn, however, he ceased his struggle. Toye was now lying on his back outside of the circle and breathing heavily.
Luz looked over at Buck with a cheeky grin, “What’d I tell ya?”
Then he hopped up and rushed down the bleachers.
Skip stared at the arena in despair, “How did he WIN? Don-do you realize how much money I
just lost?”
When he didn’t get an answer he looked over to where Don should have rejoined him at some point, only to realize he wasn’t there.
“Don?”
What the Hell?
As everyone gathered around the two of them, both to congratulate him and to say goodbye to Grant, Toye winced and doubled over-a hand going to his injured knee.
“Shit,” he grimaced and glared at it. How the fuck did he just win exactly?
Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder and four pairs of concerned eyes looking down at him.
He stared up at them, knowing he was caught, “Um…it’s okay?”
Luz made ‘pssh’ noises and waved his assurance off. Lipton shook his head and Bill actually got down on the ground to inspect his knee.
Finally Dick said, “Even so-Lipton why don’t you take Jo to Renee and get it looked at? Then the two of you can meet up with us in a little while.”
Bill and Luz exchanged confused looks, both knowing it’d make more sense for either one of them to take him to Renee. They stayed quiet as Lipton helped Toye leave the arena.
Meanwhile Grant was saying his final words into the camera.
“Yeah it sucks but I guess I kind of deserved it. I mean I let my partying get the best of me and it really screwed me over in the last challenge.”
“Is there anything you want to say to anybody?” Harry asked him from behind the camera man.
Grant nodded, “Yeah. Frank you’re the man- and Jo you never got pissed at me even when I deserved it. You’re a machine dude and you deserve to win. Good luck.”
Harry nodded, figuring that was it. But then Grant lifted a finger quickly, as if remembering
something.
“Oh and just so you know- Babe’s only 17.”
Harry pumped his fists into the air, “I KNEW it!”
“All right everyone- into the cars! It’s time for your next challenge!” Nixon called to them all- shooing them away from Grant and on towards the awaiting vehicles.
“Shouldn’t we wait for the others?” David asked noticing that a few people were missing.
“Oh they’ll be there.” Nixon promised, “Now load up- all of you!”
In the Infirmary
“Soooo,” Harry drawled, “how do you guys feel about being damsels in distress?”
Babe made a funny face, most of them sighed, and Joe glared.
“Not favorable,” Liebgott answered him.
“That’s too bad.”
The Challenge
Nixon stood with Dick in front of three paths that led off to three different parts of the island.
He caught Dick eyeing the pathways. “What?” he asked his friend.
The red head pursed his lips, “I forget which leads where.”
Nixon smiled deviously, “You’ll soon find out. Speak of the devil…”
They looked over to see the contestants approaching.
“All right,” Nixon spoke first, “you may have noticed that some of your fellow contestants are missing.”
He waited for the grumbles or dumb comments but received none. Nixon frowned as he thought that he might actually miss Grant’s consistent interruptions.
“They are however…part of this challenge,” The host continued, “Because behind us there are three different paths. Each trail will lead you to one of your missing team members-all of whom have been placed in potentially dangerous situations and require you to set them free by completing a challenge.”
“Now there is no rule as to who you go to rescue or in what order. But you only have 40 minutes to rescue as many of your teammates as possible. By the end of the challenge- whoever successfully rescues the most team members wins. Or, in the case that you are tied, whichever team completed the overall challenge the quickest wins.” Dick explained to them.
Nixon nodded, “The path to your left will lead you to Christenson and Babe. The path down the middle will lead you to Lipton and Malarkey. And the path to your right will lead you to Liebgott and Toye. Your time starts now.”
The Blue Team
Sobel knew from the moment that the challenge was explained that this would happen. He sighed and watched his team continue to squabble.
“You guys can go wherever the Hell you want. I’m going after Don.” Skip stated.
“Yeah well I say we go for Joe.” David added.
Sobel wanted to tell them that since none of them were the strongest player it didn’t really matter WHO they went for.
“Look we don’t know what the challenges are,” Shifty tried to reason, “What if they require a lot of people?”
“Like what?” Bill asked.
Skip shook his head, “We’re wasting time. I say we split up. That way we can hopefully get them all released quicker.”
“I don’t know,” Evans tentatively gave his input, “what if Shifty is right?”
Skip rolled his eyes, “Forget this. I’m going for Don. Anyone coming?”
Shifty nodded and the two of them went down the appropriate path.
David sighed and took off towards Joe’s trail, figuring that he might be the only one going down that way. He looked back in surprise as he heard footsteps following him.
Sobel shrugged at him, Evans on his heels, “I figured the other two would go for Babe. I thought you might want some help.”
David was shocked, but grateful, “Thanks.”
Sobel tried to give him a sincere smile. He knew two things- one being that out of their three options Liebgott WAS the strongest competitor. And two? That he was also Sobel’s least favorite person in the entire competition (not that he actually had a favorite- although he supposed that Evans was growing on him…like a fungus) and he couldn’t wait to send the little shit packing.
But the fact was that he needed allies at this point. Maybe even if they were only temporary. If they lost this challenge he might be able to get Webster to vote with him by reminding him that he was the only one who went to bat for Liebgott.
Hopefully it would work.
The Red Team
“Alright,” Speirs spoke up before any of them had the chance, “I’m not going to let this deteriorate into a squabble about who wants to do what. I know Luz wants to go after Toye, I know I want to go after Lipton…but that doesn’t matter. We’re going to take a vote on it. Understood?”
They all nodded, none of them really wanting to argue with their Captain.
“Good.” Ron nodded, “Now- how many for Toye?”
Luz and Buck both raised their hands.
“For Christenson?”
Penkala, Blithe and Perconte all raised their hands.
Speirs nodded, “And me for Lipton. It’s settled then- Christenson first, then Toye, then Lipton.”
Luz sighed, aggravated, “Fine.”
“Let’s go then.”
The Damsels (at least that’s what Harry’s calling them)
Babe looked down at the ocean he was suspended far above. He sighed and sat on the bottom of his cage thingy. He looked over at Christenson, who seemed to be inspecting the bottom of the metal cage- which they both knew was able to open up.
“How far down to you think the fall is?” Babe hollered over to him as they were separated by quite some distance.
He saw Burton shrug.
“I dunno!” Christenson hollered back, “But Harry said that Floyd survived it just fine!”
Babe thought back on the horny intern. “By whose estimation is that guy ‘just fine’?” he muttered to himself.
Sighing he adjusted the life vest he was wearing, knowing that for now it was just a waiting game.
Toye tapped his fingers on his leg as he looked around at the clear, plastic box he was encased inside. He felt kind of chilly- but he figured that was probably because the box was underwater.
He took a moment to be glad he wasn’t claustrophobic and briefly wandered if Liebgott was.
Since they were in two different tanks, he supposed he wouldn’t know anytime soon.
He looked up through the top of the water and saw the sun shining. Now all he had to do was wait.
They had said he had enough oxygen for four hours at least and that the challenge only last 40 minutes. So, considering how his knee still hurt, not to mention the fact that he’d just worn himself out against Grant, he figured this wasn’t a bad way to spend a challenge.
Nope…not bad at all.
“So let me get this straight.” Don said to Lipton, very aware of how his voice was shaking. “If they don’t complete the challenge correctly- I’m going to wind up sliding all the way down this slope, really fast I might add, on my ass?”
Lipton realized that it sounded pretty awful when you put it like that, but there were two cleared off paths for them to slide down before they would fall into the river at the bottom of the hill. The worst that could happen was that they scratched up their legs a bit.
“You’re wearing a helmet and a safety vest.” He offered to the blue contestant.
Don laughed nervously and continued looking over the edge of the small black platform he was standing on.
Lipton didn’t bother to worry, he had faith in Ron.
And you know…the rest of his team too.
Bill and Gene let out a sigh as they FINALLY reached the end of their path, only to see that the entirety of the red team was already there and working on freeing Christenson from where he was- whoa…
They looked out to see that there was a long cable cord set up to reach from their cliff overlooking the ocean- to another far away from them.
On the sturdy cable was a metal cage with a rickety looking bottom suspended above a very long drop into the sea and a miserable looking Babe sitting inside. He brightened up when he saw them and gave them a little wave.
Bill gave the kid a thumbs up as they rushed forward to the edge of the cliff where, in between the distance separating the two cages, there was a sign explaining what they had to do to free their teammate.
Bill peered at the sign:
As you can see- your teammate is currently suspended in a cage over the ocean. In order to get him to safety- your team must go to a large pole, to which the cable holding the cage up is attached. At the top of the pole you will find a wheel with handles on either side.
Your team must turn the wheel- which will slowly move the cage, and your teammate, towards the cliff and to safety. Once your teammate is safe you can hit the red button on the side of the pole and they will be released from their cage.
However you only have 6 minutes from the moment you start to complete this challenge. If you don’t- when your time is up- the bottom of your team member’s cage will fall open and they’ll fall into the water.
It’s a 100 foot fall.
Bill and Gene exchanged concerned glances and then shot uneasy smiles over to Babe.
Gene turned around quickly, slightly out of breath from running down their trail, “Where is
it?”
Bill spotted the pole and pointed to it, “There.”
They rushed over and both frowned when they realized that it was too tall and the wheel too high for either of them to reach.
“Shit,” Bill cursed and looked over to see that the red team was giving one another boosts in order to reach the wheel.
“We need more people,” Gene noted with a frustrated sigh.
Bill nodded, “Yeah.”
He looked over at the two trails off to the side that would lead them from this challenge to another. They each had a sign stating which trail would take them to whom.
“Look,” Bill said, “I’ll go to Liebgott and you go to Don. That way whoever finishes first can bring them back here.”
Gene nodded, “Got it.”
As Bill took off towards Liebgott’s path Gene turned back towards Babe and shouted, “We’ll be right back!”
Babe just nodded and Gene took off toward Malarkey’s trail.
The Red Team
Buck was giving Luz a boost, Penkala was giving Blithe a boost, Speirs was standing between Buck and Alex to make sure no one fell and Perconte was yelling at them the status of Christenson’s cage.
“He’s about half way here!” Frank hollered back to them.
Luz cursed as he and Blithe continued to turn the wheel with both hands. He was trying not to push too hard so he wouldn’t fall off balance and out of Buck’s grip.
This was harder than it looked.
“How much time do we have?” Blithe asked Speirs through his teeth as he continued to turn the wheel with the handle on his side.
“About 2 minutes.” Speirs told him as he looked at the stopwatch that had been provided at the site of the challenge.
“If I fall I’m going to kill someone!” Christenson threatened from his cage.
“Granted you don’t die from said fall.” Frank pointed out unhelpfully.
“Shut it Frank.” Luz called over his shoulder.
Finally, after what seemed like forever- the wheel stopped. They looked behind them to see that the cage was now above dry land at the edge of the cliff.
Christenson grabbed the metal bars and gave them a nod. Blithe hit the red button, the bottom of the cage dropped out and he hopped down onto the ground.
He grinned and dusted off his life vest, “Nice one guys. Who’s next?”
____
Your team member is currently at the bottom of the tank with your team color adorning it. He is encased in a large plastic box with enough air for four hours. However you only have 7 minutes to complete the challenge.
In order to free your teammate you will have to dive into the tank. At the bottom of the tank there are several different keys. You must find the right key to fit into the key hole at the top of the tank.
The key hole will be next to the controls that operate the box in which your teammate is encased. Getting the proper key will result in having your teammate lifted out of the water.
However for every wrong key you use, a hole will open on the side of your teammate’s box, allowing water inside.
The water CAN fill the box up before the 7 minutes is through.
“Alright,” David spoke stripping off his tee shirt and his shoes, “I guess if we all go in at the same time, the better the odds are we’ll get the right key.”
Evans nodding and took off his shirt/shoes as well. “It looks like there’s plenty of room in the tank for three.”
Sobel shrugged and mirrored their actions. He walked over to the side of the tank where a ladder led them to the top.
“After you.” He looked at David and motioned to the ladder.
David nodded, scaled the ladder and dove headfirst into the water. As he swum down to the bottom he saw Liebgott sitting in a clear box at the bottom-looking bored as usual.
Looking over the tank floor he began to spot the keys. He heard a noise above him and looked up to see that Sobel had entered the water.
He grabbed two keys at once and swam back to the surface. Turning the first key, he waited. But nothing happened.
Suddenly Sobel surfaced next to him.
“That one didn’t work.” The captain informed him, “The water’s starting to go into the box.”
David frowned and tossed that key out of the tank. He began turning the second one. Again nothing happened.
“Crap,” He muttered and went back under the water.
Swimming back down to the bottom he looked into the box to see that the water was at Joe’s ankles and that Joe was giving him an ugly look.
“Nice job!” Liebgott shouted through the glass, giving him a sarcastic smile and a thumbs up.
If David could have sighed, he would have, instead he just collected three more keys. As he went up he noticed that Evans was now in the water and Sobel was swimming back down.
So those keys hadn’t worked.
Once he got back up he tried the three keys. None worked.
David took a deep gulp of air and went back under, passing Evans on the way down. He noticed that the water was now up to Joe’s chest. Shit.
But suddenly as he was collecting another key- he heard a loud noise and the box began to move up through the water.
Evans had found the right key.
Relieved- David began his swim up to the surface.
When he reached the top he took a moment to catch his breath before he looked out over the side of the tank to see Joe already sitting on the ground-completely soaked in water.
“Sorry.” He apologized to the other man.
Joe looked up at him with a curious expression, “No it’s fine. It’s…great. Thanks.”
Then with a smirk he stood up and offered David his hand. David took it with a smile and slowly climbed out of the tank.
Joe pulled off his shirt and rung the water out as the others put their shoes back on. “So what now?” he asked them.
Just then they heard footsteps and looked over to see Bill jogging towards them. When he reached them he looked at the set up of the challenge in confusion and back at Joe.
“You alright?” He asked with a grimace- the sun in his eyes.
Liebgott gave him a nod, “Yeah.”
“You wanna help me with Babe?”
“You bet.”
“Great. Let’s go.”
Skip sighed as he continued to walk.
“Shit. Are all the trails this long?” he wondered out loud to Shifty.
“Nope,” answered a slightly panting voice coming from behind them.
They turned to see Gene running to catch up to them.
“How’d you get here so quickly?” Shifty asked.
Gene shrugged, “There was a connecting path from Babe. I guess it was just shorter.”
“You guys get him?” Skip asked him.
Roe shook his head, “No we needed more people. Figured we’d split up- help out and then go back with you guys.”
Shifty was sweet enough not to say ‘I told you so’.
Finally they began to reach the end of their trail and broke out into a run.
The Red Team
They came up on the second challenge just in time to cross paths with half of the blue team running in the opposite direction.
Penkala noticed that Skip wasn’t with them and wondered if he’d reached Don yet. He also noted that most of them were soaking wet. Awesome.
As they approached he noticed the two tanks of water and they all gathered around to read their instructions.
“You wanna sit this one out?” Speirs asked Perconte, remembering that he couldn’t really swim.
Frank shrugged, “Don’t have much of a choice do I?”
Christenson clapped him on the shoulder as he took his life vest off, “Don’t sweat it man. If we all got in that tank- we’d be bumping heads anyway.”
That said he chucked the vest, his shoes and his shirt and quickly ascended the ladder- Luz hot on his heels.
Speirs nodded, “He’s got a point. Penkala you sit this one out too.”
Alex frowned and was about to ask why but Blithe, Buck and their Captain were already gone.
Underneath the surface of the water Christenson was scooping up keys like crazy.
Luz swam over to the box where Toye was seated- his head back against the wall and his eyes closed. He tapped on the glass and Jo looked up at him.
Luz gave him a thumbs up and Jo just smiled. Just then the water began to pour in. One of the keys had apparently not worked.
Swimming around at the bottom Luz noticed that there were only two keys left- his other teammates had gotten almost all of them. So he grabbed them both and swam to the top.
“That’s all of them.” He said when he reached the surface.
Christenson nodded and hopped out of the tank, no more keys left to try.
A noise came as Blithe turned his key and Luz swam closer to the side of the tank and watched as the box began to lift out of the water.
Buck slung an arm over his shoulder, “See what a little team work does?”
“Alright be careful.” David warned as Joe stepped into his cupped hands.
Liebgott looked down at him as Webster boosted him up to the wheel at the top of the
pole. “What the Hell are you talking about? It’s like a ten foot drop- big whoop.”
David frowned, “Yeah but- weren’t you sick this morning? I thought you might not being feeling well.”
“Nah- I’m fine.”
“Well then what was wrong with you?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Joe dismissed the question.
“But-”
“Hey! Could you two maybe talk less and turn more?” Sobel asked from where he was holding Evans up.
They fell silent and Joe and Evans continued to turn the wheel furiously- their arms quickly growing tired.
“He’s almost all the way!” Bill shouted over to them, “You only got a minute left!”
Suddenly the wheel stopped abruptly.
“He’s good!’ Bill shouted.
Joe hit the red button and they all cringed as Babe fell to the ground hard, not having been prepared.
David let his hands fall and put them on Joe’s waist as the other man dropped down. He left them there for a moment as they watched Bill help Babe up.
Then Joe gave David an amused look.
“What?” Webster asked.
“Hands,” was the only reply he received.
Webster looked down with a blush to see that his hands were still resting comfortably on Joe’s hips.
“Sorry.” He muttered and pulled them away.
“Sure.” Joe said with a smirk.
“I am!” He protested- now thoroughly embarrassed.
Sobel rolled his eyes, “Who cares? We need to get moving.”
They all nodded and took off towards Don’s path.
Your team member is currently standing on a small platform extended roughly ten feet away from the edge of a very high and very steep hill.
In order to bring him to safety you will have to build a bridge to extend to him so that he can cross from his platform and back to solid ground.
In front of each stranded contestant there is a box with connectable platforms. They are easy to put together but it is up to you to decide how long it should be. There is no way to measure and you can only extend ONE bridge. If the bridge is not the right length when you extend it- you will have no chance to add onto it.
You only have 5 minutes to complete this challenge. If your teammate is not safely across by then- the platform will fall away and your team member will slide down the 40 foot slope on his back before landing in the river at the bottom.
They had already been building their bridge for awhile now. Skip wasn’t sure if it was long enough yet. Shifty figured it was but really- what harm could it do to keep adding to it?
“Wait- no…this interlocks onto this pole.” Gene corrected Muck.
Skip nodded and then looked over to Don who was trying very hard not to look down. “How much time do we have left?” he asked Shifty, who was holding the stopwatch that had been provided.
“One minute.” He informed them.
“Shit.” Skip began to add one more platform as quickly as he could. Don had already shown that he was afraid of heights during their second team challenge. He had to be terrified.
Shifty rushed them, “Y’all don’t have time for that- you have to put it out there now.”
Skip stood while he and Gene grabbed their bridge and rushed to the edge of the hill and towards Don.
Just as they were reaching the edge there was loud thud, a sharp gasp and Don wasn’t there anymore.
Skip dropped the bridge and rushed to look over the edge, knots of worry tying themselves in his stomach.
He didn’t see Don. Shit- he must be sliding really fast.
“Crap,” he muttered. Hmmm how to get through this without having Don be too pissed that he couldn’t save him?
“That’s not good.” Shifty noted with a frown.
Skip stood overlooking the edge with his hands on his hips. Gene approached cautiously.
“Hey,” He said standing next to Muck, “He’s totally fine. He’s probably going for a swim
right now.”
Skip nodded and then turned to Gene with a smile, “You know what? I think I’ll join him.”
“Wait- what?” Gene asked but received no answer as Skip rushed forward, jumped over the ledge and slid onto the path that Don had just taken.
Shifty came over to stand next to Gene. “What just happened?” he asked.
Gene shrugged, “Oh…you know. He just did something very…Skip-like.”
“Right.”
Don had just surfaced from the river where he had landed, still shook up from the adrenaline.
Sliding down the slope of that hill had been like going down one of those crazy water slides at an amusement park.
Only it was kinda muddy. Sure it had scared the shit out of him at first. But it wasn’t so bad. Skip probably would have enjoyed something like that more than he ever could.
Geez he hoped Skip wasn’t beating himself up over this.
All of a sudden he heard a shout.
“WOO-HOO!”
Then Skip came sliding off the edge of the hill that broke off about three feet above the water.
Limbs flailing through the air his friend came crashing next to him with a splash.
Don laughed out loud as water hit him.
Skip resurfaced with a grin.
“Did you have fun?” Don asked with a smile as Skip pushed the wet hair out of his eyes.
Skip continued to beam at him, “This island’s freaking awesome. I’m SO doing that again.”
The remainder of the blue team and the red team arrived at the place of the final challenge almost simultaneously.
They stopped abruptly, all of them trying to avoid smacking into each other.
Bill stopped in front of Jo. “Got a little wet I see.”
Toye eyed him with a smirk, “Stayed a little dry I noticed.”
“Yeah well I got to the swim party a little late.”
Jo looked over to the site of the challenge, “Looks like you got to this one a little too late too.”
“Huh?” Bill looked over his shoulder in confusion to see that Lipton was all alone, his platform the only one above the hill.
Jo gave him a shrug, “Don’t worry about it.”
Then he rushed over to join his team.
Babe walked over to Gene. “Hey.”
Gene looked up at him and smiled. “Hey…you look like you…”
“Didn’t fall into the ocean from 100 feet?”
“That’s exactly what I was going to say.”
Babe laughed, “You’re going to be a doctor right? Can you really make that fall?”
Gene nodded, “Sure. But it’s all about how you hit the water. You could easily break something, split your skin or bruise. At least from what I know. That’s why I was….uh….worried…about you.”
Babe smiled, “I’m okay.”
“Yeah…you are.”
Babe looked down at where Gene had been staring over the edge of the hill. “So what happened?”
Gene sighed, “Don slid down this hill and landed in the river when we didn’t complete the challenge in time.”
“And Skip?”
“He thought it sounded fun.”
Liebgott came up behind them, “Shit. That does sound like fun.”
Babe grinned at him, “I’m doing it.”
“Me too.”
“Wait-” Gene again wasn’t allowed to finish as the two of them took off.
Webster rushed over to him and stared down the hill in astonishment. “Did they just-”
“Yep.” Gene answered.
The two exchanged looks.
“Want to?” Webster asked.
Gene shrugged, “Why not?”
“Wait so as long as we do this right- then we win?” Alex asked once more for clarification.
“Very good Penk.” Luz teased as they read over the instructions.
Buck frowned as he and Speirs looked the sign over. “It doesn’t tell us much does it?”
Speirs shook his head before turning back to his team. “Okay Blithe I want you to keep time.
When we have exactly one minute and thirty seconds left- you tell us. No matter what- when Blithe says that time we stop putting the bridge together and we set it out there. He has to have enough time to get over here. Otherwise- let’s try to make it as long as possible.”
They all nodded and got to work.
At the bottom of the hill Shifty, Roe, Webster, Joe, Babe, Don and Skip were all swimming around in the river.
“So- think we lost?” Babe asked.
Skip shrugged and splashed some water at him, “Well if they can’t complete the challenge correctly we would have lost this challenge FIRST and therefore- have won.”
Joe made a face. “That makes almost no sense.”
Gene looked at the second path coming from the hill, “We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Hey guys?” Babe got their attention again.
They all looked over.
“What?” Webster asked.
“You don’t think there are like- snakes or anything that bites in this water do you?”
Shifty shook his head, “Oh I don’t think so. Webster?”
“Of course not,” David shook his head as well.
Babe sighed and looked away.
David caught Shifty’s eyes and made a face. “Snakes.” He mouthed to him and made a wavy hand gesture.
Shifty frowned and looked down at the water with a grimace.
“Minute and thirty seconds!” Blithe yelled out to his team who were quickly assembling what now looked to be a very long bridge.
“That’s it.” Speirs cut them off with a wave and stood. They all lifted the bridge together and brought it closer to the edge.
Sitting one end on the ground they pushed the other into the air and aimed it towards Lipton’s platform.
“Just try to grab it.” Jo shouted to the stranded man, who nodded.
It was certainly long enough. They all held onto their end and lowered the bridge onto the platform like a draw bridge.
Lipton checked to make sure it was secure.
“Come on, come on!” Speirs waved him over.
Lipton crossed the bridge wearily at first, but once he realized it wasn’t going to crap out on him, he rushed over.
He sighed when his feet hit the ground.
Blithe hit the stop watch and looked at them all with big eyes, “Forty seconds left to spare.”
They all cheered.
Lipton smiled at their excitement, “Never had a doubt.”
“Dude- were you freaked out?” Christenson asked, “Because I SO was. I was like HANGING a hundred feet over the ocean.”
Perconte rolled his eyes, “It’s not a competition.”
“Actually it is.” Luz joked.
Lipton shook his head, “Nah…it wasn’t really scary. Actually- it looks like the blue team enjoyed it.”
They all looked over to see there were only three blue members still standing there.
“Where’s your team?” Speirs asked Sobel with a small smile.
Sobel rolled his eyes, “Swimming around in a river like a bunch of children.”
He looked next to him where Evans was looking between him and the hill excitedly and bouncing
up and down.
Sobel sighed, “Oh just go.”
“Thanks.” The blond man grinned and rushed to slide down the hill.
Bill caught Jo’s eyes and jerked his head after Evans. Jo got the message.
“Oh Hell yeah.” He grinned and jogged over, jokingly shoving Bill to the side and sliding down the hill first.
Luz frowned as he watched them.
Nixon looked over the gathered contestants.
“Sobel...you’re missing…well- everyone.”
The blue Captain rolled his eyes, “Yep.”
“Right…well since your team failed to rescue Don you are the losers of this challenge. Have your team assembled on the beach in four hours to cast your votes.”
Sobel sighed. Great…now his head would be on the chopping block. He knew there was no way Liebgott and Bill WOULDN”T vote for him over the others.
He would just have to manipulate the votes somehow…
He grinned as an idea popped into his head.
He knew just the thing. This shouldn’t be too difficult at all.
If there was one thing that this challenge had proven- it was that some people on his team would do anything to protect the people they were coming to care about.
No…this shouldn’t be too hard at all.
A/N: So that was long in length...and long overdue. And had a lot of highly improbable and unrealistic crap in it. I mean I have NO idea if you can fall 100 feet and have any of those things happen to you.
Although...coming from a military family I probably could have asked either of my aviator parents (one of whom has actually had to jump into the ocean from a helicopter)...but I'm lazy and figured "It's a fic so whatever!".
Hope y'all liked this chapter. For reasons unknown it took forever to finish.