Episode 3

  The Insomnia Files

  “Last time on Endurance Forest!” Vince Goldman says over clips of the previous episode. “We joined the contestants on their second day of the competition. On Team Water, Mina and Regina decided to team up due to Mina wanting to go into the same profession as Regina. Meanwhile Sue and Lissa seem to bond a bit despite their differing opinions on eating meat. Perhaps a bit of a friendship forming there, though maybe Sue is hoping for something a little more. Over on Team Fire, Daisy manages to rub her team the wrong way by badgering Lucas about the scar on his face and not seeing the problem. Honestly, I can't blame her for being curious. It’s a good chunk of the reason why we cast him. They then were thrown into their first challenge, randomized one-on-one matches of tug-of-war. Some matches were even bouts of strength while others… not so much. In the end Clarence won it for Team Water sending Team Fire to elimination. Before the ceremony however, Simon pulled his male teammates aside and got them to agree to a guys alliance with said alliance working together to make Daisy the very first person ever eliminated on this show. A title that she… didn’t take well. Thirteen are left, who will be the next person to be sent packing? Find out on this episode of Endurance Forest!”

  ~~~

  The episode begins with shots of the members of Team Fire sleeping soundly in their respective tents early in the morning as the sun had just begun to peak over the horizon on their fifth day in the forest. It was nice and peaceful until a loud blaring sound echoed out from the loud speakers, jolting everyone awake.

  “Ahh! What the hell?” Ben shouted as he looked around confused.

  “Good Morning everyone!” Vince’s voice cheerfully said through the speaker. “I suggest that you all get up and get ready for the day. Your next challenge begins in half an hour.”

  “Oy vey, what time is it?” Simon mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.

  “Too early. I can tell you that.” Nicole said as she removed a sleep mask from her face, “Trust me, I’m used to working at sunrise and even my internal clock is telling me I shouldn’t be up.”

  Jillian nodded in agreement as she let out a yawn.

  ~~~

  A tired and annoyed Yong-Gi is shown in the confessional, “So there I was on the grand stage at EVO, ready to take on Daigo in the grand finals of the Street Fighter VI tournament. Ready to beat a legend and cement myself as a great amongst the FGC, when suddenly I’m ripped away from that and the jolly voice of Vince f****** Goldman is telling me to wake up and do some challenge.” Yong-Gi rubs his face, “I hope the rest of them don’t also start this early.”

  ~~~

  Over at Team Water’s camp, Lissa groans in frustration as she exits her team’s tent, “Really? The sun's not even up.”

  “What? Need your beauty sleep?” Mina asked sarcastically as she too got out of the tent.

  “Yes. Are you saying you don’t?”

  “I grew up on a farm, I’m used to waking up… okay a bit later than this, but still pretty early.”

  It was at that point Sue also joined them, “I’m sure this is just to keep us on our toes. You know, even though we know that the challenges are every three days, we don’t know for sure at what time. Or something like that.”

  “Maybe.” Mina said.

  “Regardless if my theory is true or not. Let’s just get ready.” Sue said going back in the tent to get changed out of her pajamas.

  ~~~

  The tired looking members of Team Water stand together as a wide awake looking Vince stands there with a smile on his face. “Good morning Team Water, I’d like you to take a look at the new Team Fire.” He motions to the side where the six remaining members of Team Fire who looked about as tired as them, if not more so due to their lack of sleeping bags, walked in from the left. “The denouement of our actress came after the last challenge as Daisy is the first person who has been eliminated.”

  ~~~

  Clarence is shown in the confessional, “I don’t want to make assumptions about someone I never got the chance to speak to, but considering how she acted when she first arrived to the forest and with how angry she seemed to be at her team losing the last challenge… I’m not shocked. She seemed like she might be the type who might see herself above the others on her team. I’ve worked with some guys like that. It’s always kinda funny when it’s unfounded. Like okay Eric, this isn’t Madison Square Garden, it’s the local high school gym. No need to act like you’re Shawn Michaels at the peak of his dickishness.”

  ~~~

  Lissa let out a grunt and glared at Vince, “Why did you call us here at the ass crack of dawn? I want to go back to sleep.”

  “Oh feel free to if you want. Just know that you’ll be eliminated for today’s challenge and hope that the rest of your team can pull it off.” Vince said with a cocky smile.

  Lissa looked like she was legitimately considering it, but Regina just glared at her.

  “What’s” Yong-Gi said before letting out a yawn, “The challenge?”

  “Today’s challenge is a simple one. All of you will be trying to stay awake as long as possible. If you fall asleep, you’re out. The last team with at least one person still awake will win immunity and a reward that I’m sure will be really appealing after this is all over. A portable, solar-powered coffee maker and enough ground coffee to last you until the end of the competition. Well, unless you guys just drink it all like caffeine addicted fish.”

  Hearing the explanation of the challenge Ben rolled his eyes a bit, “Really? Two episodes in and this show is already ripping off challenges from Total Drama?”

  “What’s Total Drama?” Nicole asked.

  “It was a Canadian animated reality show that aired on Cartoon Network in the early two-thousands.” Ben explained, “Like it was meant to be a parody of other reality shows, but you know, as a cartoon.”

  “I remember catching reruns of that.” Yong-Gi said, “It got weird in the later seasons. Like the camp became a nuclear waste dump for some reason.”

  “Yeah.” Ben said, “While it never was super realistic or grounded in reality, it did jump the shark a bit there.”

  “I’m just trying to wrap my head around a reality show cartoon.” Nicole said, “I mean who would want to engage with a reality show that’s completely fake?”

  There was a long and awkward silence across the challenge area for a bit before Vince clapped his hands together and said, “Well… I can assure you that this challenge and all future ones that may or may not have similarities to ones that have appeared in other shows, both real and fictional, are completely coincidental.” He then gave a fake and nervous smile as if he was begging some unseen force to not smite him with the force of a thousand lawyers. “Anyways… the competition starts now… I guess you’re all free to hang out and do whatever you want around the forest. Just don’t fall asleep.”

  ~~~

  Ed is shown in the confessional, “A competition where the goal is to stay awake as long as possible? Doesn’t sound like interesting television to me, but whatever. I’m not going to complain about an easy challenge. I’m a detective. I’m used to staying up for long periods of time when working on a case or doing a stake out. I’m sure that I have this in the bag.”

  ~~~

  Simon is shown in the confessional, “Alright, I didn’t get to do anything last time, so this is my time to shine. Sure even if we lose I don’t have much to worry about with my alliance, but I still want to pull my own weight. I don’t want them to see me as the most expendable member of this team. I mean I’ve stayed up for a long while when I was young. I’m sure I can still easily pull it off nowadays.”

  ~~~

  The camera cuts to a snoring Simon who was the first to have fallen asleep only five hours into the competition. Two counters with the team’s logos appear on screen, under them are the numbers for the remaining members on each team. Team Fire’s is shown dropping down a number.

  Team Fire: 5

  Team Water: 7

  “He’s taking a nap already?” Lucas said, slightly annoyed.

  “It’s a bit disappointing, but he is kinda old, so I’m not going to blame him too much.” Jillian said, overhearing Lucas as she came back from a walk around the woods. She walked over to the log Lucas was sitting on. “Do you mind if I sit next to you?”

  “Uhh… Yeah, of course. Not like I own the log or anything.” Lucas responded, patting the seat next to him.

  Jillian let out a small chuckle as she sat down next to him. “So…” she began to say, “I know that you’re a writer… did you happen to bring a copy of your book with you?”

  “I did not.”

  “Oh… I guess that makes sense since I guess any books anyone would bring here would be ones that they intended to read. I assume you’ve probably spent so much time reading through that thing every time it went through another draft that you probably don’t want to look at it ever again.”

  “I wouldn’t say that. Since there have been times where I have sat down and read my own work after it was published.”

  “Doesn’t that seem a bit egotistical?” Ben asked, overhearing the conversation as he took out a wooden chess board that brought with him. Said board was designed in a way that it was both the board and the container for the pieces.

  “I can see why some people might think that, but it’s not an ego thing it’s just that… I don’t know… I guess it’s just kinda nice to be able to look at something you made as a final product. To just go and enjoy it for what it is and not look at it with a critical eye, looking for mistakes and whatnot.” Lucas explained, “Granted that hasn’t stopped me from finding them. Since yeah, no matter how many read throughs you give something, there will always be typos that somehow managed to slip through the cracks”

  “I getcha.” Yong-Gi said as he sat across from Ben and started setting up his pieces. “Like glitches in a video game.”

  “I guess.” Lucas said before turning back to Jillian, “Though why did you ask about my book? You want to read it?”

  “I’d certainly be interested in seeing what it’s about.” Jillian said with a smile.

  “Well, I could give you a synopsis of it. A spoiler free one of course. Both for you and because…” He motioned to the cameraman filming them. “I have no idea how much of this conversation they’re going to air. I don’t want to spoil the events of my own book on national television. I’m trying to get money to help advertise the damn thing. So that would defeat the purpose.”

  Jillian giggled at that. “I suppose that makes sense. Alright. Go right ahead. Let’s see if it sounds like something that’ll catch my eye.”

  As Jillian said that, even though Lucas knew that it wasn’t intentional, something about her naturally smooth voice made that statement sound a bit more flirtatious than he was certain she meant it to be. Which made the aspiring writer’s cheeks turn red as he looked away. “Well you see, it’s a bit of a modern fantasy setting…”

  ~~~

  Jillian is shown in the confessional, “Yeah… I noticed that blush on Lucas. It’s… cute… When I turned forty earlier this year I thought that my chances at finding someone were all, but gone. I mean we’ve only known each other for five days now, but… I guess it’s just nice to see that someone might find me at least a little attractive still. Maybe if we get closer I can let him know that he’s still attractive too. Even despite the scar. Since, yeah I know he voted for Daisy and considering how she talked about it, I can assume why and don’t blame him. Hell, I considered voting for her too, but I threw mine on Ben just based off of his performance in the previous challenge.”

  ~~~

  The camera cuts to Nicole walking over to the side of the area that Team Water was on and approaching her daughter, “Hey pumpkin.” She said with a wave.

  “Mom? What are you doing on this side?” Mina asked as she looked up from the graphic novel she was reading.

  “Well I’ve been pretty much doing nothing the past few hours when it dawned on me. Why are we all just sitting around on our respective sides? Sure, I know this is a competition and all, but we’re all here. No reason why we can’t mingle a bit.”

  “Because someone might get the idea to make some sort of cross team alliance. Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if anyone who sees me talking to you right now is thinking that's just what we’re doing.”

  Nicole rolled her eyes, “Don’t be so paranoid, sweetie. I doubt anybody here is going to fault me for wanting to talk to my own daughter. Especially one that sometimes forgets to call me.”

  “Sorry…” Mina said, slightly ashamed. “It’s just that sometimes school just swamps me with work and… I’m just too tired once I’m done.”

  “It’s okay.” Nicole said, taking a seat on the ground next to her daughter, “Just promise me that once you become a hotshot lawyer you won’t forget about you dear ol’ mom.”

  Mina smirked at that, “You say that like it’d be possible for anyone to forget you.”

  Nicole smirked at that as her eyes drifted to the page of the comic her daughter was reading. On it was a disturbing image of an anthropomorphic duck laying on a tarp being bisected by an anthropomorphic bear. Nicole quickly tore her eyes away from the drawing that had a good chance at giving her nightmares once she fell asleep. “What in God’s name are you reading?”

  “Oh.” Mina said, realizing that her mother saw the page and remembered that, unlike herself, her mother was not a big fan of horror media or really anything that was on the more violent side. Not to the point where she outright condemned it, but enough that she went out of her way to avoid it as much as possible. “It’s a comic called Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees. It’s like a horror/murder mystery comic that someone in college recommended to me, describing it as The Berenstain Bears meets Dexter. That description alone made me curious enough to pick up a copy of the trade before coming out here and hey, I figured that if this is scary or disturbing enough, maybe it’ll keep me up and give me an advantage in this challenge. That and if we are just sitting around it’s as good a time as any to read. Though I say that like I haven’t been on the days between the challenges.”

  “Yeah.” Nicole said with a nod, “I wonder how much footage from those off days will make it to the final show.”

  “I would guess only the really interesting stuff that they have time for.”

  “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Nicole said before changing the subject away from the game, “So how’s college going? Are you eating well? Have you met any cute boys? If so I hope you’re taking the proper precautions and-”

  Mina held up a finger to stop her and said, “To answer those in order. It’s going as fine as it can with how stressful it is. I’m eating as well as I can afford. Which is not too different from home. As for a boyfriend… no. I haven’t had too much time to socialize and I haven’t seen anyone around campus that stood out to me.”

  “Aww… nobody has caught my daughter’s eye?” Nicole said in a disappointing tone.

  Upon hearing that Mina’s eyes darted over to Clarence for a second. He was off in the distance sitting on a large rock and reading one of her graphic novels that she let him borrow to pass the time. She looked back at her mother just as quickly and said, “Yeah, nobody there.”

  ~~~

  Nicole is shown in the confessional. “That’s certainly a shame. Though before anybody watching this gets the wrong idea. This isn’t a stereotypical “when are you gonna give me grandchildren” thing. God knows I’m too young to be a grandma… granted so was my mother… It’s more of a… me hoping that my daughter is more successful than me when it comes to finding love.”

  ~~~

  A few hours later the camera shows Sue sitting by and talking to Lissa, who nods her head. Sue at first smiles, thinking that she was agreeing to what she was saying, only for that smile to drop once Lissa fell to her side making it clear that she had fallen asleep.

  Team Fire: 5

  Team Water: 6

  A nearby Ed sees this and jokingly asks, “Did you bore her to sleep?”

  “No… I don’t… I don’t think so.” Sue said with a yawn, but as she did she realized that she was tired to the point that she had completely forgotten what the two of them were talking about. She was about to say sometime else to Ed, but before she could she fell to her side. Asleep as well.

  Team Fire: 5

  Team Water: 5

  “That’s unfortunate.” Ed said to himself. As Regina snuck up on him and tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Hey can we talk?” She asked him.

  “Uh… Yeah, sure.” Ed said as she motioned for him to follow her into the woods. Ed smirked at this and said, “Ah, you want to talk in private. Lucky me.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Oh… I said that out loud? I mean a pretty lady asking to be alone with me. Especially late at night. I guess I was hoping that there was more to this than a simple conversion.”

  Regina rolled her eyes at this, “I’m a married woman, so prepare to be disappointed.”

  “Okay.” Ed said with a dash of enthusiasm.

  Regina couldn’t help, but chuckle a little at that. She turned around and said, “I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m here to tell you that Mina and I are working together.”

  “Cool… Wait… Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because we’re looking for other people to work with us and I think you’ll be a great addition to our group. You do seem naturally charismatic.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “What does catermaristic mean?” Ed said in absolute confusion.

  “Charismatic… It means that you’re really likable. Likable to the point that I think people aren’t going to want to vote you off.”

  “Oh? Thank you.”

  “So I was wondering if you want to join.”

  “Okay.” Ed said without a second thought.

  “Oh? Well good to know that you’re all for it.” She said with a smile.

  ~~~

  A smirking Regina is shown smirking in the confessional, “So I’ve successfully gotten Ed onto our side. And now with the knowledge that he thinks I’m pretty, I can use that to my advantage. Didn’t expect to have to use my looks in this game, but hey, whatever works. He doesn’t know it, but I have him right under my thumb. Now we just need one more person to have the majority.”

  ~~~

  Ed is shown in the confessional, “I’m glad that Regina came to me. Saves me from having to risk blowing my cover by suggesting working together with someone. Plus she seems to be buying the act. Which is good since I was a bit worried that I was playing it a bit too dumb with the whole thing of pretending to not know what “charismatic” means. Plus she now thinks I like her and while I’ll admit that she, like every other woman that was recruited for this show, is attractive, I’m not looking for romance. I’m too married to my work for any woman to be willing to put up with it. I’ve had enough failed relationships to realize that. Probably why I haven’t asked…” Ed then shook his head, realizing that he was about to say something about someone who might see this. “Regardless, right now I have her right under my thumb and I’ll keep her there… as long as she’s useful. Might be until the finale, might be much sooner than that. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  ~~~

  Back at the challenge area, Yong-Gi moves his queen and in a monotone says “Check mate.”

  Ben sits across from him dumbfounded. “I… Did… did you seriously just beat me again?”

  “And in two moves this time. You’re getting sloppier.” Yong-Gi said with a slight smirk.

  Ben reset the board and said, “Alright, now I am determined to beat you at least once. I can’t be the guy who brought a chess board with him and look like a total amateur.”

  “Not to brag, but I was in the chess club in both middle and high school. So I have quite a bit of experience and there’s nothing wrong with losing. I mean in said club I certainly had more losses than wins.”

  “But you still kept at it for the love of the game?”

  Yong-Gi snorted at that, “No, my parents forced it on me. I love them, but yeah, they’re a bit of the stereotypical strict asian parents that you see in media. That’s the reason why I can also play the piano.”

  “Geez, I’m just picturing you being raised by Kahn from King of the Hill.” Ben said in a joking tone.

  “You have no idea how accurate that is.” Yong-Gi said in a serious tone, “Take Kahn, make him Korean, give him glasses, put him in a suit and bingo, that’s exactly what my dad looks like.”

  “Oh geez.” Ben said with a laugh, “I’m sorry if playing this is bring back any bad memories I-”

  “Oh no no.” Yong-Gi said, “It’s not that I hate chess, it’s more that I would rather be playing Street Fighter or KoF right now.”

  “What’s KoF?”

  “The King of Fighters.”

  “Oh, that’s where that Terry guy in Smash comes from right?”

  “Well technically Terry Bogard comes from the Fatal Fury series and The King of Fighters is a big crossover spin-off series that exists within its own separate universe with its own continuity and characters, but eh, I’m getting caught up in semantics there.”

  “I see and you play those on stream sometimes, right?”

  “To like five people, but yeah.” Yong-Gi said with a sigh, “Maybe being on this show can get more eyes on me, but that feels like a big maybe.”

  “Yeah I getcha. I’m kinda hoping the same thing with my Youtube channel, and I know Lucas is also hoping that this show is a boon for his writing.” Ben said, pointing over to Lucas and Jillian who were laughing at something.

  “I guess a lot of us are hoping that this show will be big enough to give us our fifteen minutes of fame.”

  “Though with mention of your Youtube channel that gives me an idea.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Ben asked with a raised eyebrow,

  “You told me that you review movies, right?”

  “Sometimes, when I want to talk about a particular one.”

  “Maybe after this show is over we can collab on a video? There are plenty of bad movies based on fighting games. Like I’d say that the only good one is the first Mortal Kombat movie and even then it’s not exactly Oscar worthy.”

  Ben thought about this for a few seconds before asking, “What’s the worst one you can think of?”

  Yong-Gi let out a hum, “Well I could go off on the live action Tekken movie for making it so that Christie is Jin’s love interest when I’m pretty sure those two have never interacted once in the games. Then there’s the animated one, or well I guess the more recent animated one to be more accurate, Tekken Blood Vengeance, but that one is kinda more on the weird side. Then there’s the live action King of Fighters movie where almost everything was wrong. Let me tell you Rugal in ice skates, being played by the dude who played Darth Maul is just the tip of the iceberg.”

  ~~~

  Ben is shown in the confessional. “While I’ll admit that I’m not too versed in fighting games, so I have no idea what Yong-Gi is talking about, I do understand what it’s like to be passionate about a piece of media and have it be ruined in an adaptation.” He then cringed and muttered, “I will never forgive Hollywood for what they did to World War Z. Brad Pitt owes me two hours of his time for that abomination. I really should get around to making a video about that. I just hope that I can say something that other critics haven’t said already.” He then snapped out of his rant and said, “Oh yeah, Yong-Gi, right. Yeah, he seems like a cool guy. I can see the two of us hanging out after this show is over.”

  ~~~

  The camera cuts back to the challenge where Nicole is shown laying on her back with her eyes closed, clearly asleep. Sitting upright, but with her head down and also asleep was her daughter.

  Team Fire: 4

  Team Water: 4

  Clarence walks up to Mina, not realizing she’s asleep and taps her on the shoulder. Her eyes snapped open as she mutters, “Ahh… what huh…” before looking at Clarence and saying, “Aww crap. I fell asleep didn’t I?”

  “Did you. It’s dark so it’s hard to tell.” the wrestler said.

  “Yeah… Oh well… hopefully the rest of you can pull this off… Anyways, what’s up?”

  “Oh, I just wanted to give you back your comic. It’s getting too dark for me to read it and I don’t want to risk losing it. So I might ask to borrow it again in the morning after I wake up.” He explained handing her back her copy of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

  “After you wake up?”

  “Yeah…” Clarence said, rubbing the back of his head, “I think I’m tapping out here.” Before letting out a yawn. “I’m sorry.” With that he laid down on his back and within seconds he was taken by the sandman.

  Team Fire: 4

  Team Water: 3

  ~~~

  Over on the other side Jillian and Lucas were still sitting next to each other, though now they were leaned up against the log instead of on top of it and without realizing it they were even closer together than they were before. Jillian let out a yawn and said, “So… what made you audition for this show?”

  “Oh, I wasn’t planning on it. My younger sister, Megan, heard about this show from… somewhere, I don’t remember exactly where, and wanted to audition for it. Said auditions were being held in a part of a mall a few towns over from where each of us live. I think they were using an area that used to be a Toys R Us, though I guess that’s not important.”

  “So you decided to audition as well?”

  “Not at first. Our mother’s birthday was coming up within the next few weeks and I saw it as a good excuse to go and find her a present while Megan waited in line to audition. Once I was done with that I met her up as she finished talking to the producers. I was planning just for us to walk away so we could go to lunch and catch up, but then the producers saw me and I assume they were intrigued by my scar because they asked me if I was there to audition as well. Megan answered for me and… well I’m here now.”

  “I see… How old is your sister?”

  “She’s twenty, making her eight years younger than me. And I mean that to the day since yeah, by some unbelievable conscience she was born on my eighth birthday.”

  “Wow, that is weird. Though I can’t help, but wonder. Did that result in your parents having to buy as many presents at once or you two getting half as much as someone normally would?”

  “The f*** if I know, though I imagine that it was a mix of both since, on top of that our shared birthday is in December. December fourteenth to be precise.”

  Jillian laughed at that, “Oh, that is some poor luck on everyone’s part.” Though then a realization finally hit her tired mind, “Though wait, if she’s twenty and you're eight years older… you’re twenty-eight?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  She let out a yawn, “I honestly thought you were younger… Like college aged.”

  “Really? The receding hairline wasn’t a dead giveaway?”

  “I guess I didn’t think about it.”

  “Well thanks I guess, but yeah.” He yawned himself, “I’m almost thirty, so soon I might as well be sent up to the home.” He chuckled.

  “Hey, I’m forty, so watch it.”

  “There’s no way. I assumed you couldn’t be a day over thirty-two.”

  Jillian smiled at that and laid her head on his shoulder, “I doubt that’s true…” she yawned, “I b… I bet you’re just saying that to… cover your…” She ended up drifting to sleep before she could finish the sentence.

  “Maybe.” Lucas said before he too fell asleep.

  Team Fire: 2

  Team Water: 3

  ~~~

  The show cuts to as the sun is rising in the morning. Both Regina and Ben are shown to have fallen asleep as well sometime during the night.

  Team Fire: 1

  Team Water: 2

  Leaving Yong-Gi, Ed and Phineas the only three still awake by the time that a well rested Vince walked up to them. “Gentlemen, congrats on being the last three standing in this challenge. How are all of you feeling?”

  “Tired.” Yong-Gi mumbled.

  “Yeah… I too…” Was all Ed could make out.

  “I see.” Vince said with a nod. “How about you Phineas?” Phineas didn’t respond, he just sat there. Unmoving and unblinking. “Uhh… Phineas? Are you okay?” Vince said in a concerned tone as he walked up to the large man and patted him on the shoulder, only for his head to slump down.

  “Did… Did he die?” Yong-Gi asked both worried and scared. An equally scared expression appeared on Vince’s face, but thankfully those fears were dashed away once a loud snore came out of Phineas.

  “Wait? Is he sleeping with his eyes open? I didn’t think that was actually possible.” Ed commented, so surprised that for that moment he broke character. Thankfully for him, Yong-Gi hadn’t seemed to notice.

  “I guess so…” Vince said, “Well I guess he’s out then.”

  Team Fire: 1

  Team Water: 1

  “Well now.” Vince said with a clap, “We’re down to two, one from each team. Yong-Gi vs. Ed. I was hoping it would come down to the wire like this. So come on gentlemen, I have an extra challenge in mind to try to make one of you fall asleep first. Come on.”

  Both men stood up, both wobbling as they did so, but as Ed tried to make a single step forward he collapsed to the ground a few seconds later he let out a snore to confirm that he was out like a light.

  Team Fire: 1

  Team Water: 0

  “Well that was a bit anticlimactic.” Vince muttered before changing his tone on a dime and saying, “Oh well, congratulations Yong-Gi! You’re the last person awake! Your team is safe from elimination and you’ll get a portable coffee maker and coffee!”

  “Oh yeah… Forgot about… the prize…” Yong-Gi said before he too collapsed and fell asleep instantly.

  Vince chuckled at that. “Rest easy all of you. Though I hope they all don’t sleep through the day because Team Water needs to figure out who they’re sending home tonight.”

  ~~~

  An extremely tired looking Ed is shown in the confessional, “Remember what I said about me being used to staying up for long periods of time? While true, those do have the asterisk of me having plenty of coffee or really whatever caffeine I can find. Won’t be getting that coffee now.” He let out a disappointed sigh, “F***... Well, at least between being the one on my team who lasted the longest in this challenge, and my new alliance with Regina and Mina, I think I’m in a pretty safe spot.”

  ~~~

  There’s a cut to the afternoon after the challenge had wrapped up and Ed walks over to his two alliance members. “Hey.” he said, still tired as he had just woken up, “I’m sorry I couldn’t last just a little bit longer.”

  “You lost us the challenge.” Regina muttered.

  “Regina, we all lost the challenge. No need to blame him, especially when he was the last person standing on our team.” Mina said in Ed’s defence which surprised the detective.

  Regina let out a sigh, pinched her brow and said, “You’re right, sorry Ed, I guess I’m just a little bit snippy from losing.”

  “Oh it’s alright. That coffee did sound nice. I know I could go for a mocha cappuccino right now.” Ed said with a smile.

  “I doubt they won anything that fancy.” Regina said, “If you recall Vince said that they would just get coffee. So I imagine that it’s just a simple dark roast. Probably a generic brand or that of one that’s sponsoring the show. Also he never mentioned cream or sugar so they’re probably stuck with it being black.”

  Ed let out a bit of a grumble at that.

  “Don’t like black coffee?” Mina asked.

  “If I have no choice, it gets the job done, but I’d rather have my coffee be more like… coffee flavored milk.”

  Mina giggled at that before saying, “I can agree with that, though enough about coffee, who are we voting for tonight?”

  “I think it’s blatantly obvious.” Regina said, looking back towards the direction of the camp, “There’s no need to step on any toes tonight. So let’s just make the vote easy.”

  “Alright, so who would that be?” Ed asked.

  ~~~

  At Team Fire’s camp Jillian is shown sitting by the lake as Lucas arrives with a bucket. The park ranger notices the writer and smiles at him. “Oh hey Lucas. Getting some water.”

  “Yup. Simon’s got a fire going so I offered to get the water to boil in order to use for the coffee tomorrow. Boy it’s really going to be nice after that challenge. Even if it didn’t come with cream or sugar.” Lucas said as he lowered the bucket into the lake.

  “Well the cream would certainly go bad without any way for it to stay cold.”

  “I know, I’m just saying. You know?”

  “Yeah, I getcha.”

  “So what are you doing?”

  “Just relaxing a bit. Enjoying the sunset.”

  Lucas looked over his shoulder and saw a wonderful orange glow on the horizon. After a few moments he changed the subject, “I didn’t get the chance to ask you something during the challenge because we both fell asleep.”

  “What is it?” Jillian asked curiously.

  “I told you how I got on this show. I was wondering what your story is.”

  “Honestly it’s not too dissimilar to yours. Dale heard about the auditions and told me about it. I figured that a show like this could be fun and decided to audition with him and they picked me.”

  “Who’s Dale?” Lucas asked with a dash of worriedness in his voice, “Your boyfriend?”

  Jillian snorted at that, “Oh heavens no. He’s just a fellow ranger. I’m not seeing anyone at the moment. In fact, truth be told, I’ve only had like… two serious relationships in my life. Neither worked out. The rest are mostly flings and random hook-ups.”

  “O…Oh.” Lucas said, “Y-Yeah… I’ve only had like one girlfriend in high school and… a few dates with other women here or there. Though… yeah… I’m not seeing anyone either.”

  Before Jillian could say anything in response, Simon’s voice loudly called over from the camp. “Eh, Lucas! That water coming any time today?”

  “Oh uhh… I’ll be there in a minute!” Lucas called back, before looking at Jillian and saying, “I’ll talk to you later.” before giving her a wink and walking off as fast as he could without risking spilling any of the water.

  Jillian giggled and blushed at the wink lightly waving as he disappeared.

  “So, what’s the deal with you two?” Nicole asked, surprising Jillian as she turned towards her, seeing that she was dressed in her too small bikini.

  “Oh, hey Nicole… What are you doing here and how long have you been there?”

  “I felt like going for a swim and I’ve been here long enough to hear you and the man of mystery there talking about your dating history. So I’m just curious as to what’s up with the two of you. I mean when I woke up I saw you two cuddled up together. I was pretty cute. So what’s the deal? You planning on hitting that?”

  “What?” Jillian said, her face turning as red as a tomato as she was taken aback from Nicole’s bluntness. “N-No… I mean maybe after a few dates… that’s if he wants to go on them in the first place of course.”

  “Relax.” Nicole said with a laugh, “I don’t blame you. If it wasn’t for that scar and if he lost the beard I’d bet you that he’d look a bit like Christain Slater. So if you can look past the scar, good on you.”

  Jillian paused for a second, realizing that she did kind of see the resemblance after Nicole pointed it out, though it wasn’t one-hundred percent accurate. Then with some sadness in her voice, she said, “Scars aren’t bad. It just means you survived.”

  “You probably should have saved that line for him.” Nicole said with a smirk.

  “No reason I can’t also say it to him, if I need to.”

  “True, true.” Nicole said, heading towards the water.

  “Hey Nicole.” Jillian said, “Why are you so interested in me and Lucas?”

  “Eh, a mixture of making sure that I know he’s off limits so I don’t fall for his potential charm and because, well, what can I say? I’m a sucker for romance.”

  “I see. So I assume that you had quite the relationship with Mina’s father.”

  An uncomfortable look appeared on Nicole’s face as she looked away from the park ranger. She then muttered, “Nah… it’s like what you said about your own history… flings and hook-ups.”

  ~~~

  Jillian is shown in the confessional, “I hope I didn’t upset Nicole. While I did notice that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, I just assumed that either she was divorced or that her husband had passed away, but now… I’m worried about what the story actually is.”

  ~~~

  Back at Team Water’s camp, as the sun is setting, Clarence walks up to Mina with a mostly blue comic in hand. “Hey Mina, just handing this back to you again. Don’t worry, I'm actually done with it this time.”

  “Alright, thank you.” Mina said, taking her comic back, “So how’d you enjoy it?”

  “It was certainly weird. Though I guess that’s to be expected from the dude who made Invader Zim. Granted this does make me question who the hell at Nickelodeon saw this and went “Yeah, let’s let this guy make a show for children.”, he said with a laugh. “As for if I enjoyed it, I guess it was fine. If anything I think this might be more appealing to my boyfriend, assuming that he hasn’t read it already.”

  Whatever Mina was going to say about the comic was halted by a certain tidebit that Clarence casually dropped there. “Boyfriend?”

  “Yeah, my boyfriend Alex. He’s more into the weird and trippy stuff like this. For example he once showed me this stop motion movie called Mad God, insisting that it was this modern masterpiece and… I cannot tell you what the hell happened in it or whatever the f*** it was about. If there even was a plot. I know I for sure as hell couldn’t follow it.”

  Mina just stood there, not absorbing anything he had just said and in a disappointed voice asked, “You’re gay?”

  “Yeah.” Clarence said with some suspicion in his voice. “Is there a problem with that?”

  “Oh, no no. Of course not…” Mina said waving her hands in defence, “I… Okay I’m just going to be honest, I’m just a bit disappointed since I think you’re really good looking.”

  Clarence chuckled at that, “Thank you and I guess sorry to disappoint you. Though we can still be friends though, right?”

  “Oh, of course.”

  “Great.” Clarence said with a smile.

  A few moments passed before Mina said, “Off topic, but have you thought about who to vote for tonight?”

  “I have an idea. Why? Do you have a suggestion?” Mina leaned up and whispered in his ear. Clarence once again chuckled, “Well, seems we were already on the same page.”

  The camera pans to show that Phineas was nearby, having heard their conversation.

  ~~~

  The show cuts to all seven members of Team Water sitting at the bonfire of the elimination area. Vince Goldman is standing at his podium and says, “Welcome Team Water. Since this is your first time here I will explain how this will work. 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 and place said vote into the slot in front of you. Once all votes are made I will read them aloud. The person with the most votes is eliminated and must leave the forest. Does everyone understand?” He saw the members of Team Water nod. With that he smiled and said, “Great, and no smartass comments about originality like last time. Alrighty then, get to voting.”

  Dramatic music plays over a montage of each member of Team Water writing. Regina is shown writing with a confident look on her face while Sue is shown looking a bit more torn on who to vote for.

  After the montage is over Vince is shown placing a red and blue clay jar on the podium in front of him. “Time to see who you all voted for.” He reaches into the pot and pulls out a slip of paper. “The first vote goes to… Phineas.” He continues this process, “Second vote… also goes to Phineas. Third vote… is for Regina.”

  Regina looks confused as to who voted for her and why.

  “That’s one vote for Regina and two for Phineas.” Vince says reaching into the pot again, “Fourth vote… is for Phineas. That’s one vote Regina, three votes Phineas.”

  Phineas’s face morphs to one of anger as he realizes the danger he’s in.

  “Fifth vote goes to… Phineas. And with that, four votes is enough. Phineas, you are the second person eliminated from Endurance Forest. Though just to show where the other votes landed.” Vince pulls out the last two pieces of paper, showing that they too both had Phineas’ name on them. Which very obviously cleared up who voted for her to Regina. Though she was still a bit curious as to why.

  Phineas, seeing that his whole team voted for him, grumbled as he stood up and began to walk away.

  “You wanna say anything to your former teammates before you go?” Vince asked the tall and very red man.

  Phineas turned around and said, “Ed… Just know that you’re the only person on this team who I think deserves to win.”

  “Uhh… Thanks?” Ed said with a confused look on his face, “Why me though?”

  Phineas just smirked as he turned back around and kept walking.

  ~~~

  The camera cuts to Phineas standing at the road at the end of the forest with his stuff already brought to him. Soon a car arrives to pick him up and take him to join Daisy at the motel. Phineas stepped inside and once sitting down he mumbled, “Maybe I should have talked to people more… Not that I would want to talk to those… nevermind… Though I wonder how they’ll do without one of their stronger members.” With that the car drove off.

  ~~~

  A still confused Ed is shown in the confessional, “Seriously, why did he say that about me? Did he figure me out and is trying to expose me in some way? Sow some seeds of doubt in the team because the weirdo nobody was friends with liked me apparently? What is his game here?”

  ~~~

  Mina is then shown in the booth. “I will admit that part of me wanted to try to convince the others to vote for Lissa. I mean she hasn’t been doing well at challenges and I still believe that she doesn’t need or deserve the money. Though Regina said that we should just make this an easy vote and get rid of the person that nobody would be against leaving. Which is fair. That guy was creeping everyone out just from his vibe alone. I guess if we lose again and if she doesn’t improve, I can make a case for why we should cut off the rich girl just like her daddy.” Mina giggled at her own joke.

  ~~~

  The show cut to Vince standing alone behind his podium at the elimination area. “Well now, even I feel like I can sleep without one eye open with that dude gone, and I wasn’t even sharing a tent with him like Team Water was. Anyways with how two competitors are gone the competition will only get more intense and cutthroat from here on out. Who will be the next person forced to leave the forest? Join us again next time to find out on Endurance Forest!”