Episode 2
Roped Into War
“Last time on Endurance Forest!” Vince Goldman says over clips of the previous episode. “We met all fourteen of our contestants. Some were excited to be here while others… not so much. After the teams were divided into Team Fire and Team Water, our competitors were given a chance to get to know each other. Which was mostly unshown because a lot of what they said were repeated in the confessionals. Though we still learned some things. Like Lucas’ work being more popular than he is or the fact that Lissa somehow didn’t know that caviar isn’t vegan. We also saw Jillian take up a bit of a leadership role on her team while Sue impressed her team by managing to catch a wild boar for them to eat. Will these early moments establish a hierarchy on the teams? You’ll just have to watch to find out as today the contestants will have to face their very first challenge and the very first person will be voted out. Who will it be? Find out on this episode of Endurance Forest!”
~~~
The episode opens on Jillian dressed in her regular clothes and stretching as Simon walks out of the woods in his pajamas which were just a white tank top and a pair of striped sweatpants.
“Oh, good morning Simon.” Jillian said, “You’re up early too?”
“Nope.” Simon said, walking past her and going back into the tent to get some more sleep.
Jillian shrugged and didn’t think much more of it, getting back to her morning stretches.
~~~
Jillian is shown in the confessional, “With my job as a park ranger, I tend to wake up early normally, so me being the first one awake on my team doesn’t surprise me. The only difference is that normally I have a cup of coffee and at least one other ranger to talk to. Though it’s not a big deal. I can still enjoy nature as it wakes up too. The sun rising and its light hitting the morning dew… breathtaking. Just a shame nobody else is here to enjoy it with me.”
~~~
The show cuts to a bit later as Mina and Regina walk through the forest together in the direction that Phineas said he found those blueberries the other night. He offered to go with them, but Mina insisted that she wanted to just go with Regina.
“So what do you want to talk about?” Regina asked.
“Well you said you were a lawyer last night and I didn’t get a chance to follow up on any questions since that Lissa chick started bragging about how many Instagram followers she has, like that’s supposed to be an accomplishment.”
“What follow up questions would you have?”
“Well since this is the field I’m going into, I guess I wanna know what it's like, how stressful can it be and if it’s even worth it?”
“Oh right, you did say you were a law student. My apologies, that fact slipped my mind.”
“It’s fine. I’m sure most of what I’ve said yesterday got overshadowed by the fact that, as if the universe itself decided it would be funny, my mom is on this show too and on the other team.”
“True.” Regina said, remember not just that, but with Ed referring to Mina’s mother as a ‘milf’ with her noticing a brief look on Sue’s face making Regina sure that she was silently agreeing with the shaggy-haired man. “I guess to answer your questions, what it’s like and how stressful it is depends on the case and on the client. I’ve had some cases that were so easy it was over by lunch and others… that I feel took a year or two off my life.”
“That bad?”
“One particular example was one with a rich college boy. He got drunk and drove his car right into the living room of a suburban house and… hit a little girl in the room.”
“Oh god.”
“She lived, but… that motherf***** had the audacity to insist that it wasn’t him even though it was his car and he was not only behind the wheel, but the only person in the vehicle. And I was hired to defend him. I pleaded with him to just take responsibility and plead guilty since it was an open and shut case, but no. He refused to listen to me. At that point… yeah I can say that while I tried to do my job… I think everyone in the trial could tell that my heart wasn’t in it since I didn’t believe a word I was saying.”
“Yet you still went along with it?”
“That’s the job. Sometimes you need to bite the bullet and do what your client expects of you. With that sometimes being complete bulls***.” Regina said with a shrug, “Though trust me, if that little girl did die or even if she was hurt more than she was, I probably would have walked out the second he said “I plead not guilty”. My paycheck be damned.” She then let out a sigh before saying, “As for whether or not it’s worth it, well my bank account certainly says that it is.” She then let out a laugh.
“I see… so… In a few years… umm…”
“Are you trying to see if we’ll have an opening?” Regina said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
“Maybe.” Mina admitted sheepishly.
“I can’t promise anything, but…” Then Regina got an idea, “How about this. The two of us work together in this game. We can see it as… a bit of a trail run.
Mina took a moment to think about it and eventually responded with, “Sure, why not?” The two shook on it as they reached the blueberry bush they were looking for.
~~~
The camera cuts to Regina sitting in the confessional, “So I have gained Mina as an ally. Good. Now I just need two more people on my side in order to have majority vote on this team. I’ve already determined that Ed guy as someone I could probably manipulate with little effort. Now I just need to find someone else. Preferably someone physically strong. Which leaves three candidates. Though since Phineas creeps me the hell out, he’s out of the running. So I’m going to have to study Clarence and Sue in order to see who’s a bigger asset, but more importantly, who I’d want to face in the finale less.”
~~~
Hours later, Simon had officially woken up, the last member of his team to do so. Once dressed he met them all sitting about the campfire area. He let out a yawn. “Morning. So what’s the grub for today?”
“Apples.” Yong-Gi said, holding up the one he was eating. “Jillian and Nicole found them.”
“Yup.” Nicole added, “Found a few trees not too far from here. So we at least have that if we don’t have any other options… much like how it is right now.”
“Yeah, figured as much.” Simon said, grabbing an apple for himself and whipping it on his shirt, “Unless the author here got that scar trying to kill a bear, nobody here really looks like the hunting type. Hopefully one of the rewards we can win is food.”
Lucas looked a bit uncomfortable at Simon pointing out the scar on his face, something that was only made worse once Daisy decided to follow up on that.
“Yeah, I gotta say that I’m curious. How did you get that scar exactly? I mean considering that it’s not even a sexy scar so it’s gotta have a good story since you’re not even trying to cover it up somehow.”
Now Lucas never considered himself a violent person. The number of fights he had been in throughout his life could be counted on one hand and he’d have five fingers left over. Right now however, he just took a deep breath, stood up and walked off into the woods in order to blow off some steam.
Seeing this Ben just glared at Daisy, “Not cool.”
“What? I was just asking a question.” Daisy said in a tone that made it obvious that she was genuinely oblivious as to what she did wrong.
“He’s clearly a bit sensitive about it.” Jillian said in a claim voice in order to prevent this from turning into an argument. “Perhaps you should apologize to him once he gets back.”
“If he’s sensitive about it then he shouldn’t have gone on national TV. I guarantee you that people are roasting him on X for it.”
“Eww, you unironically call Twitter “X”, who does that?” Yong-Gi commented.
~~~
A slightly annoyed looking Lucas is shown in the confessional. He lets out a sigh before speaking, “I’m not surprised that someone asked about my scar. Considering I get asked about it… I wanna say at least once a week, it was inevitable, so I’m not mad about that, but… I don’t know. Something about the way that Daisy went about it, probably the comment on how because of it really ticked me off. Don’t get me wrong, I know that because of it I’m not as good looking as I used to be, but still… I just needed to remove myself from the situation before I did or said something I regretted that would more than likely cause me to be voted off the first chance my team got.”
~~~
Daisy is shown in the confessional with her arms crossed. “Seriously I don’t know what everyone is biting my head off for? I was just curious. I promise you that everyone else on this show is as well, but I’m the bad guy for being the first person to actually ask? I swear people are too sensitive sometimes.”
~~~
The camera then cuts to Sue resharpening the makeshift spear with her pocket knife when Lissa walks up to her. “Planning on killing more animals?” she said in a bit of an annoyed tone.
“Not right now, but getting the spear ready to hopefully catch some fish later.” Sue responded, completely ignoring Lissa's obvious judgment of her. “Why? You have a problem with that? I mean we did find out last night that you’re not vegan, you’re pescatarian.”
Lissa facepalmed at her own embarrassment for last night and said, “Look… now that I know what it is, I’m going to be avoiding caviar now as well. I just wonder how can you willingly go up to a living creature and just kill it without a second thought?”
Sue just shrugged at that, “My step-dad loves hunting, he taught me how to hunt and now I love it too. If you don’t like that, oh well. You and I just clearly lived two different walks of life and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t be one of those vegans that shove it down everyone’s throats and act like you’re literally Satan if you eat a plate of chicken nuggets or something.”
“Oh no, I’m not like that.” Lissa insisted, her face softening a bit, “Though the mention of the nuggets now make it so that I could go for some fried cauliflower now.”
“Ooo, fried cauliflower is pretty good.” Sue said with a nod.
Lissa giggled a bit at that, “I’m surprised to hear that from you.”
“What? Just because I know how to skin a deer doesn’t mean I’m a total carnivore.” Sue said with a smirk, “Like a nice steak dinner is good, but you need the sides as well, like a nice pile of mashed potatoes or some cooked asparagus.”
“Stop, you're making me even more hungry than I was already.” Lissa said before the pair shared a laugh.
~~~
A cut to the confessional booth shows Sue sitting in it. “Lissa’s personality may be a bit rough around the edges at first, but I feel that might just be a byproduct of how she was raised… maybe… I don’t want to make too many assumptions of a woman I’ve known for less than a day. Though I think I’m starting to enjoy her company a bit. It doesn’t help that if you ask me she’s easily the prettiest person here and that’s saying a lot.” Though it was about half a second after she said that her eyes widened and an embarrassed blush appeared on her face, “Oh s***... I said that last part out loud didn’t I? Maybe the lack of cigarettes is getting to me already… Umm… can whoever is editing this please cut out that last bit? Please?”
~~~
Throughout the forest Vince’s voice is heard through a series of speakers, “Attention contestants. Meet me by the lake in one hour for your first challenge. Oh and change into your bathing suits since some of you are going to get wet.”
Regina and Mina, who had just returned to their team’s campsite with the blueberries they picked, looked at one another and Mina asked, “Umm… you think that’s long enough for us to eat breakfast before heading out?”
“I would assume so.” Regina said with a shrug, “And if not, what’s he gonna do if our team’s a bit late? It’s not like they can do the challenge without us.”
“Penalize us… say that we forfeited the challenge. There’s things he can do to punish us.” Phineas said as he suddenly appeared behind the two women, making them jump in surprise as neither of them heard him sneaking up from behind them.
“Jesus tapdancing Christ, Phineas!” Mina shouted, “You almost gave me a heart attack.”
“Jesus ain’t here and he ain’t got no rhythm.” Phineas said with a slight smirk.
“You know your footsteps are quiet for such a big guy.” Regina added. “Could be useful if there’s ever a challenge that involves stealth.”
“Mmm… maybe.” Phineas said before walking away into the tent to grab his swimsuit out of his bag.
~~~
Regina is shown once again in the confessional, this time looking a bit nervous. “Yeah… remember what I said about me not wanting to bring Phineas into the fold that Mina and I are making? I’m doubling down on that because, yeah… I think that man has gone from creeping me out to flat out scaring me. And with how stealthy he is… who knows if he’s around a corner listening in to whatever you're saying. Which makes him a potential threat when it comes to trying to strategize in secret. For all I know he might have been following Mina and I and heard about our alliance together. I’m sure I’m just being paranoid there, but I can’t discount it as a possibility and I can’t discount him as a potential problem.”
~~~
The Camera cuts to all of the contestants arriving at the lake each and every one of them dressed in swimwear like Vince told them to. Most were wearing something pretty standard. Whether it be swim trunks for the men or either one-piece swimsuits or bikinis for the women. There were two that stuck out however. One on each of the teams. Phineas was dressed in an old-timey full body striped swimsuit. Nicole was wearing a bikini much like about half of the other women here, but hers however seemed to be a size or two too small for her. Making it seem that one wrong movement could easily cause a wardrobe malfunction. With how unconcerned she seemed about that possibility, the smaller bikini might have been intentional.
Vince was standing in front of the lake with a box at each of his sides, one red and one blue. Behind him in the lake were two floating platforms about twenty feet apart from each other. There was a long and thick robe laying across the water with a bit of said rope laying on each of the platforms. He looked at both teams, looking at Nicole a bit longer than the rest before speaking up, “Good afternoon everyone. I hope you all enjoyed your first night here.”
“I didn’t.” Lissa complained.
“Unfortunate, but that’s not my problem.” Vince responded before continuing, “Today is your very first challenge. As you can see we have set up two platforms and a rope. You all are going to be competing in a classic game of tug-of-war. Though there’s a bit of a twist to it. While normally tug-of-war is done with teams, we’re not doing that today. In these boxes besides me are slips of paper with each of your names. Each round I will pull one name out of each and those two people will face off in a one-on-one tug-of-war match. The winner of the round being the person who pulls their opponent into the water. The first team to win four rounds will not only be safe from elimination tonight, but also receive the reward of sleeping bags and pillows. Something that, after having a night without them, must sound pretty good right now.” Vince smirked as he saw various looks of determination of the faces of the contestants. “Alright if everyone understands, let’s get this started.” Vince reached into both boxes, pulling out a piece of paper from each. “Looks like the first round is Nicole… versus Ed.”
~~~
It cuts to both competitors on their respective platforms each holding an end of the rope.
“Would it be too much to ask for you to go a bit easy on me, cutie?” Nicole said with a wink and a soft smile.
Before Ed could respond, Regina shouted at him from the sidelines, “Don’t let her feminine wiles distract you Ed! You got this!”
Mina however had her face in her hands in slight embarrassment.
~~~
Mina in her frilly black swimsuit appears in the confessional. “I think I’ve realized that my mom’s strategy in this game might just be to flirt with the male contestants.” She let out a sigh, “I’m not surprised I mean… look… I love my mom to death, but… it’s kinda hard growing up when almost everyone you meet is shocked when they see your mother. I don’t know how many guys during my high school years have commented on the fact that I’m not as… endowed as her. Making me feel like there was something wrong with me because I don’t resemble her in that way. I even once broke up with a guy because I quickly realized he was much more interested in my mother than he was in me.” she sighs again, “I hope this doesn’t bite her in the ass somehow.”
~~~
Vince blew a whistle and the two began pulling on the rope, both seeming pretty even as both sides cheered their teammate on. Except for Phineas who just stood there silent and unblinking.
“Hmm… you seem stronger than you look.” Nicole said with a slight giggle.
“Oh? Uh… thanks.” Ed responded in the dimwitted tone he’s been putting on.
“Though…” Nicole said with a smirk, “Nowhere near as strong as other men I’ve had to deal with.” With that Nicole began yanking on the rope, and Ed realized that his feet were starting to slide across the platform getting closer and closer to the water. He tried to resist, but then with another yank he noticed something, how her breasts jiggled as she pulled on the rope. It was in this moment of lust that Nicole gave one last powerful pull and Ed was sent flying forward, bellyfloping into the water.
“First round goes to Team Fire.” Vince announced.
~~~
Ed appears in the confessional booth, his stomach still a bit red from the bellyflop. “As much as I want to pretend that this was my plan, to not look too strong in the first challenge, I am man enough to admit that… yeah that woman is much stronger than I thought she would be at first glance. Though she does run a farm, so that would make sense. You know, “farm strength” and all. That and… okay I admit, I got a bit distracted. Can you blame me? That is one really attractive woman and she’s partially wearing nothing! I promise you that anyone who likes women on my team would have been screwed against her. Which from what I’ve determined from my one day interacting with these people, is four out of seven of us.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
~~~
“Alright, next round.” Vince said, pulling out two more slips of paper, “We have… Yong-Gi versus… Regina.”
Regina looked over to her short and slightly chubby opponent and gave a confined smirk. “Piece of cake.”
~~~
Yong-Gi is shown in the confessional, “My plan for this challenge, and potentially all others that I can apply said plan to, is treat it like a match against an aggressive player. Keep my defence up and punish them when I have an opening.” He then pushed up his glasses like an anime character, clearly thinking it made him look cooler than it actually did.
~~~
Once they were ready, Vince blew his whistle and the round began. Regina began pulling with all her might trying to make quick work of the gamer she was matched up against, but Yong-Gi simply kept his feet planted and leaned back as far as he could, using his bodyweight to his advantage. Making him not move an inch.
“Seems like he’s using some Squid Game bulls***. Not surprised.” Phineas muttered from the sidelines.
Sue, hearing this, looked over to him with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing.” Phineas grumbled. Giving her a bit of a side eye.
The match continued, seemingly stuck in a stalemate with Regina pulling as hard as she could and Yong-Gi just continuing to lean back. Though after a few full minutes of this an idea popped into Regina’s head, one that she wasn’t one-hundred percent sure would work, but at this point she felt that it was a calculated risk. She stopped pulling as hard, which did cause her feet to start dragging forward a bit as she slowly started getting closer to the water, but then she started violently shaking the rope up and down. This unexpected move caught Yong-Gi off guard causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards onto his backside, but with his hands still firmly gripped onto the rope. With him now prone, Regina began pulling as hard as she could, not giving him a second to recover. The next thing Yong-Gi knew he was sent face first into the lake.
“With that Regina scores a point for Team Water.” Vince announced, “The score is now tied at one to one.”
~~~
A confident looking Regina is shown in the confessional, “So my improvised tactic paid off. Good. More plays like that and I think I can comfortably insert myself into the role of team leader. This challenge being one-on-one also helps me with that. It makes it so I can pick out who are the weaker members on our team and would be easy fodder if we go to elimination.”
~~~
Vince pulls out two more slips of paper. “Next us is… Ben versus… Sue.”
“Good luck.” the dripping wet Yong-Gi said to Ben, giving him a thumbs up. Ben responded with a nod and a determined smile.
Sue on the other side tilted her neck side to side, making it audibly crack.
~~~
The camera cuts to Ben and Sue ready to start their round. After a few seconds Vince blows his whistle signaling for them to start.
Sue pulled on the rope and with a single yank Ben screamed out as he was sent flying straight into the water. The match did not even last two full seconds.
“Uhh…” Vince said, unsure if he really saw what he saw. “This round goes to Team Water. Making the score one to two.”
“What the f*** was that?” Daisy exclaimed as Ben surfaced. “That was f****** pathetic!"
~~~
A disappointed looking Ben is shown in the confessional. “As much as Daisy is getting on my nerves since I swear she’s been giving me s*** the whole time we’ve been here for no goddamn obvious reason, I can’t defend that. I sucked in this challenge… I don’t doubt that if we lose this, I’ll be on the chopping block. I hope that the others can turn this around, otherwise I’m going to have to convince at least half of the others to give me another chance.”
~~~
“Sorry guys.” Ben said as he walked out of the lake, “I guess I wasn’t as ready as I thought.”
The rest of his team looked to have mixed emotions. Daisy rolled her eyes while Yong-Gi and Jillian looked a bit more sympathetic to their teammate.
“Alright, next up.” Vince announced before anybody could say anything else, “We got… Lucas taking on… Phineas.”
Lucas looked over to his wall of meat of an opponent and made an audible gulp.
Seeing this, Jillian put a hand on his shoulder and gave the scared man a soft smile, “You got this. I believe in you.”
A small blush appeared on Lucas’ face, “Oh… uh… thanks… I hope you’re right.”
~~~
The camera cuts to Lucas and Phineas on their respective platforms each holding an end of the rope. Lucas looked to be putting on a confident face, but it was clear that underneath he was very nervous about this match-up. Phineas on the other hand kept the same blank expression that his face seemed to be in by default. With a blow of the whistle the round began.
Lucas began pulling with all his might, but Phineas just stood there, unmoving and holding his end of the rope in a vice-like grip. He slowly blinked as he seemed to barely notice his opponent was even trying. Like an owner playing this game with their dog.
After about thirty seconds Lucas’ pulling started to slow down. It was clear that he was tiring himself out. Seeing this a small, barely noticeable smirk appeared on Phineas’ face as he let go of the rope with one of his hands, reached forward to grab it about two feet up and violently yanked the rope toward himself.
Instead of being pulled forward however, the rope slid right across Lucas' palms at a very quick speed, burning his hands. “Aww f***!” he shouted as he instinctively let go of the rope causing his end to go flying into the water as Phineas stumbled back a bit, but didn’t fall.
As Lucas shaked his hands, hoping that would somehow dull the pain of the ropeburn, Vince blew his whistle. “Since Lucas let go of the rope, I’m making a call now and counting that as a loss. The score is now one to three. That means that Team Water now only needs one point left to win.”
~~~
A less than pleased Daisy is shown in the confessional still dressed in her pink one-piece swimsuit that had white polka dots. “Are you f****** kidding me? Can these boys do anything right?”
~~~
Daisy looked over to Jillian and Simon. “Alright… the three of us need to win all of our matches. Otherwise we’re going to elimination. Not only that, but we won’t get that reward and dammit, I want those goddamn sleeping bags.”
Simon rolled his eyes, “You’re saying that like we weren’t planning on trying. Trust me toots, you telling us the obvious ain’t helping us become more determined.”
“Can it, gramps.” Daisy snapped.
“Hey now.” Jillian said, putting her hands up to try to immediately deescalate the situation. “Let’s just try to focus, alright.”
It was at this point that Lucas made his way back to shore and walked over to his team. “I’m sorry guys.” He said, still holding his palms open.
Ben took a quick look at Lucas’ rope-burned hand, winced a little and said, “Oof… Hey Vince can we get some burn relief for Lucas? Maybe some bandages?”
“Yeah, I’ll call one of the interns to bring a first aid kit after I announce the next round.” The host responded.
“Thank you.” Lucas responded.
“Speaking of which…” Vince said as he once again pulled out two more pieces of paper, “Next up is Daisy… versus Lissa. The actress versus the heiress.”
“Why didn’t any of the other rounds get subtitles like that?” Clarence asked.
“Because I didn’t think of any until now.” Vince said, giving a mildly annoyed side-eye to the professional wrestler.
~~~
The camera cuts to Daisy and Lissa in their starting positions.
“Try not to break a nail, princess.” Daisy said with a cocky smirk.
“Break a leg.” Lissa responded coldly, “And I don’t mean that in the “good luck” way.”
Daisy only rolled her eyes at that.
“Come on Lissa! Bring this home for us!” Regina commanded.
“Yeah! You can do it!” Sue added, giving Lissa a thumbs up and subconsciously winking at her as well.
Lissa took notice of this, but didn’t say anything beyond giving a thumbs up as well. Though it was as she was doing this that Vince decided to blow his whistle. Before she could process it, Lissa was pulled forward, stumbling a bit, making it so that she was teetering on the edge of her platform before she could get her hand on the rope.
“W-Woah!” She exclaimed as she tried to pull the rope and regain some lost foot space, “That’s not fair, I wasn’t ready!”
“Save the complaining at elimination.” Daisy said before she gave a powerful yank, causing Lissa to lose her balance and fall straight into the water.
“With that the score is now two to three. Can Team Fire turn this around?” Vince announced.
As Lissa resurfaced she glared at Vince, “Seriously, why’d you start the round? I was distracted.”
“Well take that as a lesson. In this game you should always be on your toes.” Vince said with a cocky smile.
“We should?” Ed asked in a purposely confused tone, “But I don’t think I can do that. I’m not a ballerina.”
This comment got chuckles out of most of his teammates around him. With the exceptions of Regina who rolled her eyes and Phineas who just stared out into space stone-faced.
~~~
Daisy with a confident smile is shown in the confessional, “See? That’s how you get it done.” she exclaimed pointing at the camera, “Hopely the boys on my team will use me as an example to strive to do better next time.”
~~~
“Alright…” Vince said pulling out two more pieces of paper, “The round six we have… Jillian versus… Clarence.”
Lucas, while getting his hands wrapped in bandages by one of the show’s interns, looked over at Jillian with a reassuring smile and said to her, “You got this.”
A smile appeared on Jillian’s face as she gave him a nod.
Over on the other side Mina gave Clarence a pat on the back and said, “Go on! You’re without a doubt the strongest… and most well built… person here. Get us this win!” There was a bit of a flirtatious tone when she commented on his muscles that went over Clarence’s head, but was picked up on by other members of the team. Most specifically Lissa and Ed.
~~~
The camera cuts to Jillian and Clarence in their positions, waiting for Vince to blow his whistle to start the match. A wait that, while only being a few seconds, felt like minutes and the anticipation grew. Eventually that loud whistle echoed out and both competitors began pulling on their respective ends of the rope. At first Jillian began being pulled towards the water, but then when she took notice of Clarence tiring slightly, she pulled back and turned the tables, regaining footing and pulling him now. Though he would then reverse this on her. This would go back and forth for several minutes. Neither side let up as their teams cheered them on. It was clear that this was an even match-up, that even though the selection on matches was completely random, the stars seemed to align to have the physically strongest members of each team go head to head here.
After a grand total of seven minutes, Jillian ended up letting out a loud and tired breath and Clarence took that as his green light. Taking a page from Phineas, Clarence reached up the rope and pulled it towards himself, pulling Jillian forward several inches, but not in the water just yet. Then he did it again, pulling her to the end of the platform. Sweat poured down Jillian's forehead as she tried with all her might to put an end to Clarence’s momentum. To clutch a win for this round and have Simon take on Mina to hopefully win this whole thing for Team Fire. Sadly she couldn’t as with one final pull of the rope, Clarence sent Jillian falling straight into the water with a mighty splash.
“With that Team Water wins!” Vince exclaimed, causing the members of Team Water, even Phineas to start cheering.
“Clarence! Clarence! Clarence!” Mina chanted, soon being joined by Lissa, Ed and Sue.
As Clarence did a cannonball into the water and swam back to shore to rejoin his team and celebrate, Vince walked up to them.
“Team Water. Enjoy your sleeping bags and pillows. Also enjoy the feeling of safety while you have it. Speaking of which.” He turned around to look at Team Fire as a disappointed looking Jillian rejoined them. “Team Fire, you’re going to be joining me at the elimination area tonight where one of you will be the very first person voted off of Endurance Forest.”
~~~
Simon, back in his normal clothes is shown in the confessional. “It’s a shame that challenge went the way that it did since I feel that if just one of the rounds we lost went the other way, I could have won it for the team since, yeah, I would have gone up against the college girl and I think I could have easily won that. I mean unless she’s stronger than she looks… which is possible being that I know she grew up on a farm thanks to her lovely mother providing that information at the campfire last night. I guess there was also a possibility of my back giving out… Okay fine, there are certainly scenarios where I also could have easily lost, but that’s not the point.” Simon took a deep breath through his nose, looking right at the camera and said, “All this means is that I need to enact on a little plan I’ve been brewing up in my head ever since I saw how the teams were broken down.” A sinister smirk appeared on his face.
~~~
The camera cuts to what is clearly a bit later in the day as the sun could be seen setting in the distance. Lucas, now out of his swimsuit as was the rest of his team by now, is shown walking through the trees when suddenly he feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns around to see Simon standing behind him. “Oh, uhh… Simon, right? Do you need something?”
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Simon asked.
“Sure. What’s up?”
“Well I need you to follow me.”
“Why?” Lucas asked, raising the one eyebrow he still had.
“Just… trust me for one second, alright?”
“Suuurrrrre.” Lucas responded, not having a clue where this was going, Regardless he followed Simon deeper into the woods until the two of them reached an open area where waiting for them was Ben and Yong-Gi who both looked about as confused as Lucas.
“Alright. We’re all here now.” Simon said.
“So… what’s going on, Simon?” Yong-Gi asked.
“Yeah, why did you want to talk to us?” Ben added.
“Gentleman, I’m just going to be straight with you, we didn’t do well in that challenge. With you three losing your rounds and me not even getting to participate.” Simon began.
“Yeah, no s***. We’re up for elimination.” Ben said sarcastically.
“Yes. What I’m getting at is that we’re probably all on the chopping block, but we can very easily get ourselves off of it and keep it that way for the foreseeable future. As you may have noticed there’s more men than women on our team.”
“Oh I see. You’re proposing a guys alliance.” Ben said.
“Indeed, straight to the point Mister Raymond, I like that.” Simon said, giving him some finger guns.
“Seems a bit… last century to me.” Yong-Gi said, “But I guess in this case the numbers don’t lie.”
“Exactly. Besides, we’re all here trying to win one million dollars. There’s no need to be chivalrous and hey, if we play our cards right and continue this into the merge, this could be the final four.”
The other three men seemed to like that suggestion, even though for a split second there was a bit of a look of hesitance on Lucas’ face that went unnoticed by the rest of the guys.
“Seems like we’re in agreement then.” Simon said with a grin, “Though I guess the first thing we need to do as a group is decide who we’re voting off tonight.”
Before anybody else could say anything, Lucas quickly spat out, “I have a suggestion.”
~~~
Team Water is shown at their camp, setting up their brand new sleeping bags in their tent. It focuses on Sue fluffing her newly won pillow.
“Oh damn this thing is soft.” She said, sounding genuinely impressed. “With these babies I don’t doubt we’ll be much more well rested than the other team for the rest of this game.”
Regina nodded, “That is certainly something that could give us an advantage, so I’m not complaining.”
“Meh.” Lissa said, “My bed back home has pillows that are not only softer, but I have way more of them.”
“Let me guess, and you get new ones every week made from freshly picked goose feathers.” Sue said, putting on an over the top posh voice.
Lissa rolled her eyes and with a small giggle said, “I see you get your idea of what rich people are like from Disney Channel sitcoms.”
“I guess that depends if the boot fits.”
“Not me personally, but I have met associates of my father who I wouldn’t put it past.”
“That reminds me.” Sue said, “I know that you made it clear that your family has money, but I don’t think you told us why you’re here. I mean if you’re rich, then I doubt you need the million dollars.”
“Trying to make an argument to eliminate me already?” Lissa asked in a stern tone and with a raised eyebrow.
Sue put up her hands defensively and said, “No, no. Not my intentions. I'm just wondering if you’re here for fun.”
“If she was I don’t think she would be complaining as much.” Phineas said from outside the tent, as he very easily overheard the conversation.
Lissa let out a sigh and said, “My father’s rich. Me, not so much. He cut me off some time ago and I don’t agree with why. So unless he changes his mind, I do need the money to survive. Just like everyone else here.”
Mina couldn’t help, but roll her eyes at hearing that, something that was noticed, but not commented on by Sue.
~~~
An annoyed looking Mina is shown in the confessional, “Daddy dearest got tired of me buying five new outfits every week and he cut off my allowance.” she said in a tone that was clearly meant to be an impression of Lissa, albeit a very poor one. “Oh boo-f******-hoo. I doubt she knows what it’s like to actually struggle. To have nothing, but ramen noodles for lunch for weeks straight because there was a drought and that’s all your single mother could afford.” She let out a sigh and said, “While I don’t wanna act like I’m more important because I’m sure that I suffered more, but… all I’m saying is that if we had lost the challenge, I could see myself making a case against her. Yeah, I know that Regina bragged to me earlier today about how much she makes as a lawyer, so she may not need the money either, but one, she’s my ally and two, as far as I can tell she’s not a nepo baby that got everything handed to her like the heiress over here.”
~~~
The show cuts to the night where all seven members of Team Fire are sitting in front of a large campfire. Each of them looking a bit nervous. On the other side of the campfire was the host Vince Goldman who stood behind a wooden podium with a smile on his face. “Welcome to the very first elimination ceremony of the show Team Fire. How this works is that one-by-one each of you are going to go to the voting booth and write down the name of the person you want eliminated. Once all votes are made I will read them aloud. The person with the most votes must leave the forest and never return.”
“So it’s not different from a bunch of other reality shows.” Ben said bluntly.
“I mean you try thinking of a unique method of elimination. If it works it works.” Vince responded in a mildly annoyed tone.
“Eh, fair enough.” Ben said with a shrug.
“Though before we begin, Lucas.” Vince said point at his bandaged hands, “Do you think you’ll be able to write down your vote?”
Lucas looked at his hands for a second and responded, “I think I can manage, I’ve been through worse. I just can’t promise that my penmanship will look good at the moment.”
Vince gave a light chuckle at that, “Alright. Get to voting.”
~~~
Dramatic music plays over a montage of each member of Team Fire writing, though with what names they’re writing down being unseen by the camera. Within the montage a clip of Lucas grimacing in pain as he writes is shown. Once each of the seven contestants were shown the camera cut back to all of them sitting once again. Vince now having a red and blue clay jar on the podium in front of him.
“Alright.” Vince said reaching into the jar, “Time to see who you all voted for. First vote goes to… Daisy.” He showed the piece of paper that said so and would continue with each and every vote. “Second vote… Ben. That’s one vote for Ben, one vote for Daisy. Third vote… Ben. That’s two votes for Ben, one for Daisy.”
At this point a bit of nervous look appeared on Ben’s face.
“Fourth vote… Daisy. We’re tied at two to two between Ben and Daisy.” Vince said, holding up a piece of paper with Daisy’s name on it whose letters were so wiggly that it looked like it was written by a first grader. Daisy quickly glared at Lucas as she, and everyone else there, knew that was his vote. Vince then pulled out the next vote, “Fifth vote goes to… Simon.”
A look of confusion appeared on Simon’s face as he looked at the rest of his team and mouthed the words “The f*** did I do?”
“That’s two votes Ben, two votes Daisy and one vote Simon. Sixth vote… Daisy. That’s three votes for Daisy, two for Ben and one for Simon. One vote left.”
A look of worry appeared on Daisy’s face as she realized that she had to hope that someone else voted for Ben, that way there could be a tiebreaker.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl for the contestants as Vince reached into the jar, pulled out the final vote and read it aloud. “The first person voted out of Endurance Forest is… Daisy.” He turned around the paper for all to see.
“What? Why?” Daisy exclaimed in clear anger as she stood up from her seat, “I actually won my round! Why am I the one going home?”
Nobody answered her, though it was obvious from the grin on his face that Ben was holding himself back from telling her off.
“Sorry Daisy, but your team has spoken.” Vince said walking towards her and motioning her to the pathway that led to the exit, “As a fellow entertainer, I’m going to be nice and ask you to please make you leave before you have a meltdown on national TV.”
“Fine.” She said before looking back at her former team, “Have fun losing now that you no longer have the most competent person amongst this group of chucklef****.” With that she stormed off.
~~~
The camera cuts to Daisy standing at the road at the end of the forest where the contestants all arrived the day before. Her suitcase being brought to her by one of the show’s interns. Soon a car arrives and she steps inside of it, but not without flipping off the forest in which she had just got banished from. Once inside the car drove off to bring her to the cheap motel that she and the rest of the eliminated contestants are meant to stay at until the end of the season.
Inside of the car Daisy lets out a sad sigh and says, “What did I do wrong? I mean… first boot? Last goddamn place?” Tears started to form in her eyes, but she clearly did her best to hold them back, “Am I going to have to move back home if I don’t get any well paying roles soon? F***!”
~~~
The camera cuts to a guilty looking Lucas in the confessional. “Daisy if you’re watching this… I’m sorry that I was the one who suggested to my alliance that we should vote for you. It wasn’t personal… well… okay it was, but not because of anything you did… Not even for what you said about my scar… It’s just… you being a theater actress… reminds me of someone… someone that… I’d rather not think about while I’m here… I’m sorry this was what I had to do in order to make sure you wouldn’t become a distraction to me. Once again, sorry.”
~~~
It then cuts to Ben in the confessional with a cocky smirk on his face, “That’s what you get for being a complete bitch for no reason. If Lucas didn’t throw your name out there, I sure as hell would have. No clue what your problem with me was and I don’t want to assume anything, but I don’t have to worry about it now that you’re gone.”
~~~
With the next camera cut Simon is now the one sitting in the booth. “Yeah, I let them call the shots for this elimination. Makes them think that we’re all equals right now before I start pulling the strings of this alliance and leading us to victory. Though I will admit that I’m more than fine with this outcome when it comes down to who we kept around. Jillian looks like she’s gonna be more helpful in challenges and as for Nicole…” a smirk appeared on his face and he let out a small chuckle, “Hey, I ain’t about to complain about having the eye candy stick around for a little bit longer.”
~~~
The show then cuts to Vince putting on the typical smile of a television host. “After our very first dramatic elimination ceremony the thirteen remaining competitors are now all one step closer to winning one million dollars, but they shouldn’t get too comfortable as there’s still a long road ahead before we can crown a winner. Who will be the next person to leave the competition? Find out next time on Endurance Forest!”
