Camp Survivor Chapter 5

"I can't believe we lost another challenge!" Hailey was saying to her alliance partners. "Our team is full of such losers!"

"Calm down," Austin replied. "Besides, we still have strong players. What we have to do is to eliminate weaklings and strong players equally so that we don't lose the entire time yet our alliance survives until the merge."

"And who do you perceive as threats on our team?"

"Ty, for one. He is the biggest athlete on our team, so we have to eliminate him towards the end. Sydney and Chelsea provide another threat, so we'll eliminate both of them before Ty. EJ used to be a threat, until we saw his performance two days ago." He smirked at the memory of the cadet's failure. "Gabby is just plain annoying, and I can't see any threat in Blaire, Eric, Steve, or Emily. We also have to think about the strong players on the other team."

Hailey spoke up. "Jake and Brandon are the foremost threats. They act like the leaders, so we have to find a way to eliminate one of them today. Then their team will be destroyed!" Hailey gave an evil chuckle.

"I like muffins!" Brittney then spoke up. Hailey just shook her head and sighed.

******

"I like Brittney since she's the second prettiest girl on the island, and she's nice and all, but she's such a ditz! I can actually use that trait later on in the competition..." Hailel rubbed her hands in anticipation and gave an evil laugh.

******

"The best trait about Hailey? She's cunning, resourceful, not bad to look at, but she's also willing to do anything for me." Austin grinned.

******

"Can you believe it? We won another challenge!" The Awesome Armadillo girls were in their cabin, celebrating by painting each others' nails.

"This is so new to me. I've never done my nails with other girls before." Summer said softly as Lily and Lizzy printed little gold stars on her fingernails.

"You've never done it? Oh my gosh! So you've never gone to a slumber party, have never gone to the mall on shopping spree, and have never did nails with another girl? That sounds awful!" the twins exclaimed in unison.

"My mum and dad have never really let me outside of our house, except when we have to visit our relatives in the US."

Sheila looked curious. "You're not from here? So where does your family live normally?"

"I'm from England." Summer blushed. "Is there a problem with that? Do I have to be from the US? Oh dear, I'm so sorry-"

"There's nothing wrong with that, girl. I was just wonderin', that's all. "

"Okay then. Shall we get back to painting?"

******

"Just a little more to the left... perfect!" Aziz stood back to look at his work. Blaire, Steve, Eric, Gabby, Jane, and Emily were panting.

"You'd better know what you're doing, or else a certain someone will be home tonight," Blaire warned.

"I assure you, the booby traps that we laid out all over the island yesterday and today will be an asset in today's challenge!"

"We'd better make a list of all of the traps and give it to our teammates before they fall into one of them," Eric suggested. "Does anyone have any paper on them?"

"I can write the list down on my Switchnote app on by Fintendo ES!" Steve suggested. "So let me see, there's this one, the one in the kitchen, the one in the eastern woods..."

"Don't forget the one by the beach and the one on the mountain," Gabby included. "And the one by the lake, the other one in the forest with the barrels, and the one in the cave, ooh and the one on the mountain..."

They were interrupted when Ryan's voice began to echo through the camp. "Campers, time for your next challenge! Meet us at the center of camp, now!"

Groans and grumbles were heard as the contestants slowly stumbled out of the cabins and surrounding areas, groaning and grumbling. Once they had all arrived at the flagpole, Ryan began to speak. "Today's challenge is a game of manhunt! You will be given these paintball guns-" gesturing to the pile of them next to Rob, "-and shoot each other with them. If you are shot, you are out of the challenge and must return to the main camp. You will be given ten minutes to hide somewhere on the island at the beginning, and the challenge is over when one team is completely tagged out. That team will be sending one of their players home on the Fling of Failure and he or she cannot come back. Ever. Any questions?" The campers each grabbed a paintball gun and shook their heads no. "Good. Your ten minutes of hiding will be over when I sound this alarm and you can start hunting then. Your challenge begins now!" The campers scattered to all parts of the island.

"This ought to be a good challenge," commented Rob. "Want to grab some popcorn and watch them in front of the surveillance room?"

"Sure thing!"

******

"Obviously, we can't stay in large groups, so we have to split up so that you are the only one in an area," Jake was telling to all of his teammates. "Try to hide in places where you won't be seen easily, and where you can easily target others."

"Congratulations, Captain Obvious," Brandon remarked. "But I think we should stay in small groups so we can easily attack the Deer."

"I'm more concerned about having them stay in the competition than having them get the other team out," the Australian replied.

"But the faster we get them out, the better the chances that we'll still be in the challenge."

The two were clashing their heads together when Jessie piped in, "Shouldn't we start finding places to hide instead of arguing? Come on guys, let's go!" The others nodded in agreement as Brandon and Jake ran in opposite directions.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Austin?" Hailey asked as the alliance watched the scene from a tree.

"Definitely."

"Guys, can we hurry up now and hide? I don't want paint to ruin my clothes," Brittney pointed out.

"Fine. Let's go, BFF."

******

A loud trumpeting sound echoed across the island, disturbing birds and the contestants. "That must be the alarm! Time to shoot down some Armadillo butt!" Ty was in a tree with Lee, both stationed on opposite sides of the tree.

"Shush! I think some one is coming," Lee whispered as someone walked into view.

"... Hello? Is anyone there? Oh darn, I need someone to talk to."

"It's just Gabby. Don't shoot her." Ty pointed out.

"Guys? Girls? I don't know about this challenge-" A paintball whizzed past her head and she narrowly dodged it. "Nice try, but you're going down!" She shot a paintball into a tree, and Raj fell out. "Score one for the Deer!"

Another paintball hit her in the back of the head, and Gabby turned to see Jessie sprint at full speed to Raj.

"That's what you get for messin' with my boyfriend!" she shouted as she picked up the unconscious Indian and ran before Lee and Ty can shoot her.

******

Jessie was making out with the still-unconscious Raj in the confessional, before she realized where she was and turned to the camera. "You didn't see anything."

******

"Are you sure that this will work?" Tristan asked Tom as he built yet another contraption.

He nodded and went back to work.

"Won't we get, I don't know, shot while you're working?"

"Don't worry Tristan," Annie assured her friend. "I can detect no sentient presences around except for the animals and Mother Nature."

Tom taped two wires together and pressed a bright blue button on his contraption. An antenna on the top released a bright ray of light that surrounded the three in a bubble.

"What is this going to do?" Tristan asked the builder.

"It generates a force field around us so that paint is unable to penetrate from the outside," Annie translated for their silent teammate. "However..." She closed her eyes and put her fingers to her temples. "I sense someone moving at 3:00 behind that oak tree over there,"

Tristan took aim with his paintball gun and fired. A shriek ran out from the forest, scaring all of the birds from trees.

"And someone got Jane out! There are three campers out, so there are thirty left in the game!" Ryan called out through the speaker system.

"As I was going to say, paint can go through from the inside!" Annie finished,

"Now this is going to be an easy challenge," Tristan said as he picked up the contraption and the three Armadillos moved deeper into the forest.

******

"How could they! The hosts have absolutely no care for the environment! They expect that using chemicals that can harm the plants and animals of this island concentrated into tiny little balls won't harm humans as well as the earth?" Jane was exclaiming as she wiped her face off with a towel. "I could feel the poison oozing into my skin..." She shuddered from the thought.

******

"I can't believe that our friends totally ditched us!" Lily told her sister as they strolled through the beach.

"Shouldn't we find a place that is, like, hidden or something?"

"Maybe, but then-" She was cut short as a paintball hit her in the chest, and another hit Lizzy in the head.

"Boom, headshot! Ten points for headshot, and two times multiplier for double kill!" Steve told himself from a nearby tree.

******

"The fact that I finally have a chance to exercise my skills from Fall of Duty: Black Cops and Team Forest 2 will assure me a spot in the top ten," Steve said to the camera. "or maybe the top twenty, or top thirty..."

******

"Let's try luring someone into a trap," Eric suggested to Aziz and Blaire, who were crouched with him behind a rock near the lake. "Look, here comes Harley and Summer."

"And I was like, no way girl, there is absolutely no way I'm going to wear those pants with that shirt-" Harley was saying as a paintball whizzed past his head.

"It appears that someone is trying to ambush us," Summer whispered as they pulled out their paintball guns.

"Let's try firing just in front of them to lead them into one of our booby traps," Aziz said as he fired another bullet at the frightened duo's feet, causing them to back up.

"Can't we just fire at them directly?" Eric asked. "I mean, it would make it a lot simpler."

"Look out, Harley! It's EJ!" The two Armadillos fled into a bush as he walked into view.

"Darn! I could have sworn they were here." He took two steps forward before becoming ensnared by a net.

"Gotcha!" Harley and Summer opened fire on EJ, coating him in paint. "I don't who set up that trap, but it sure was helpful!' They ran off into the forest as Blaire and Eric glared at Aziz.

"The traps will be to our advantage, I assure you. But where is Steve? Shouldn't he have sent everyone on our team that list?"

******

"Huh? My phone is ringing." Lee pulled out his cellphone and looked at it. "Hmm. I received a text from Steve with a list of traps our team put up around the island. We'd better tell the people from our team who don't have phones about this." He jumped off the tree with graceful movements and sneaked off into the forest.

"Wait man, what if you get caught?" Ty yelled after him, but his teammate was too far away to hear him. "Shoot! Now I'm stuck all alone."

Summer and Harley came into view in the pathway below. With two simple shots, the two Armadillos were out.

"With Harley and Summer out, there are only twenty five people left, with five Armadillos out and only three Deadly Deer out." Ryan proclaimed from the surveillance room. "Keep it moving, people!"

******

Daniella, Mona, and Sheila were climbing up the mountain from the first challenge. "Please tell me why we're doing this again," the otaku asked as the cold wind bit them.

"Because, it is the safest place to go, duh," Daniella replied as she did a back-flip onto the ledge above her. "Who else would go here, am I right?"

Sheila leaned over to Mona. "I'm not the only one who thinks that girl is nuts, right?" she whispered into her ear. Mona nodded, and they continued to climb.

"See, what did I say? Completely safe!" Daniella cartwheeled across the summit, unintentionally avoiding some paintballs.

"Completely safe? Yeah right!" Sheila said she and Mona readied their paintball guns. "Show yourselves, fools, so that you can taste the wrath of Sheila!"

"We've got you surrounded!" Sydney, Chelsea, and Alex jumped out from behind some rocks and aimed for the three girls.

"Surrender now, 'cause we can do this the easy way or the hard way..." Sheila threatened as her teammates aimed back, and they began to move in a circle.

"A stand-off, I see. Let's get this underway," Sydney said as her teammates began to circle too.

******

"Well, thanks partner!" Wes said as Tom finished his upgrades on his gun. He, Joe, and Kat marveled at their new weapons.

Tom did some gestures, and Annie translated, "These are 60% more accurate, and has a larger splash radius so that paint can still get the person without having to hit him or her directly."

"These are amazing! We should stick together since you guys have this amazing paint force field," Joe suggested. They nodded in agreement, and walked into the swamp.

"A paint force field, eh? Two geniuses can play at that game," Eric said as he, Aziz, and Blaire followed them in.

******

"Hello? Emily? Jane? Alex? Is anyone here?" Lee tentatively walked through the forest, his hand on the trigger.

"I'm h-h-here," Emily stuttered as she walked out of a bush. "What do you n-n-need me f-f-for?"

"I'm just here to give you a list of traps that our team had set up since you don't have a phone. Here you go." he gave her a sheet of paper on which he had written the text from Steve down. "I'd better get moving, or else-"

"Or else this!" Brandon cut a rope on a nearby tree and set off a trap that ensnared the two Deer with rope. "Thanks for the list!" he taunted as the paper fell from Emily's hands. "As a generous reward for this confidential info, I won't shoot you with a paintball gun and just let you guys just hang for a little bit. See ya!" Brandon laughed menacingly as he walked away from the helpless Lee and Emily.

"Hold on, Emily. I'll get us out of here.. somehow..." Lee squirmed in his ropes.

******

Jake was alone in the desert, monitoring his surroundings in his makeshift bunker of wooden planks. "Bit uncomfy, and I really need to go to the loo, but it might be too risky..." His eyes wandered to see Austin, Brittney, and Hailey walking around, and dove back into his bunker.

"Good. Looks like no one is around." Austin reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a notebook. "I stole this from the Armadillos' cabin when no one was looking."

"What is it?" Hailey asked with her eyes sparkling from curiosity.

"This, my fellow alliance members, is Tom's notebook of inventions. With this in our hands, we can easily win this game by preventing Tom from ever seeing them!"

"Not under my watch," Jake said under his breath. He fired three bullets on after another, splattering the three Deadly Deer with paint.

"Who did this!?" Hailey yelled into the barren sands. "Nevermind, let's just toss the notebook into the sand to get lost."

"Let's get moving. The sand is sticking to the paint, and I'm going to look like I don't have perfect skin," Brittney commented, and the trio moved back to camp.

"Score three for the Armadillos!" Jake said as he picked up Tom's unscathed notebook and hid underneath his bunker again.

******

"So you guys aren't moving yet, huh?" Chelsea asked Mona, Sheila, and Daniella as they continued circling around each other at the summit.

"Mhmm. We're gonna make sure that we get you while you're not prepared." Sheila said, puffing small clouds of vapor into the cold air.

"Can you guys hurry this stand-off a bit? I'm colder than Russia here." Mona remarked as snow began to fall on the six campers.

******

"Did you hear something?" Joe asked as the six Armadillos made their way across the swamp.

"Not really. I'm not Superwoman, you know," Kat said, her boots caked in mud. "Why did we go into the swamp again?"

"I detected no human presences nearby, but it feels like someone is following us," Annie said. "Be very careful."

"Stop!" Tristan shouted, and everyone stood still. "See that patch of sand over there? That's quicksand! If we weren't careful, someone could have fallen into it." He took one step back and sank into the soft ground. "Whoops. A little help, please?"

"Hold on there partner. I gotcha," Wes said as pulled out his lasso and threw it out to his teammate. "Grab on!"

Tristan did as he was told, and Wes, Annie, and Kat pulled the rope.

Aziz, Blaire, and Eric were up in the trees, watching the scene. "Perfect timing. Attack now!"

The three teens ran, Eric holding up a a water bucket. "Your shield may be impermeable to paint, but not to water!" He threw the water at Tom's machine, passing through the force field as if it wasn't there. The machine shorted out, and the shield dissipated.

"Oh crap! Make a run for it!" Joe shouted as everyone but Wes and Tristan, who was still stuck in the mud. The two were quickly coated with paint as the three Armadillos chased after the escapees.

"Thanks, Wes. You were the only one who stuck around. I owe you one," Tristan said. "Too bad were out."

"It was nothing! As long as you're safe."

******

"So this part goes here, I think." Jake was piecing together... something. It looked like a giant gumball machine with tubes protruding from the main parts. "Hopefully this machine from Tom's notebook is helpful. A turret that shoots paint at anyone I want! What a great idea!" He took his paintball gun and poured the ammo into the main tank. "Shoot! I'm out! Better find some more paintballs..."

******

"Mission 1: The Armadillo Assault. Goal: to wipe out all remaining Awesome Armadillos. Ty, do you read me?"

"Yes Steve. I'm walking right next to you." He and the gamer had decided to team up since they couldn't find anymore of them walking around. "They should be here somewhere. I mean, where else can they possibly be?"

He was met with screams from Kat and Joe running towards the two.

"Targets found. Acquiring targets... fire!" Steve and Ty shot two paintballs at the teens, splattering them with paint and knocking them out unconscious. "Bonus points for headshots!"

The two teammates walked over to the fallen contestants and picked up their guns. "Sweet paintball guns! How'd they get these tricked-out babies?"

"Upgrade get! I wonder how good these are..."

The speaker system crackled before Ryan's voice blasted out, saying, "We are down to eighteen contestants with Steve, Lee, Ty, Sydney, Chelsea, Alex, Blaire, Aziz, Eric, and Emily still in for the Deer and Mona, Sheila, Daniella, Jake, Brandon, Jessie, Tom, and Annie left for the Armadillos!"

*******

" That's it, I'm done with this stand-off thing!" Sheila said finally, her face almost blue from the cold. She took one step and fired a shot at Alex at Sydney, who dodged.

"This is war!" Sydney shouted as the three Deer started firing at the Armadillos in the center. Daniella was quick to dodge all of them, while Mona freaked out and ran into the cavern.

"We have a deserter!" Daniella shouted as she fired a paintball at Chelsea, knocking her out.

"My shirt!" She looked down at where the paint had splattered on to her skin and saw that it was washing away her spraytan. "My tan!" She shouted in horror.

"Well, this is one extra win over Chelsea that I have!" Sydney gloated as she shot down Sheila. The Deer then turned to look for Daniella, seeing her adversary, seeing the other prepared to the same. "Alex, chase after Mona. This one is mine."

Alex nodded and ran into the cave.

"Let this match begin! Arriba!" Daniella did three backflips, shooting during every flip.

Sydney did a front roll, avoiding her shots and then returned the fire.

"You're quite good, but you are no match for Daniella the Ice Princess!" Sydney's adversary said as she ducked from the paint balls. She fired at the snowbank on the cliff above Sydney, sending an avalanche of snow on the tomboy. "Now it's time to get you out once and for all! Arr!" She fired a paintball at the disabled girl.

"Not if I can take you out first!" She pulled out her paintball gun from the snow and shot Daniella in the chest as she too was hit with paint. "Now if only Alex can get Mona out..." Sydney said as she shivered and began to make her way down the mountain.

******

"Ugh. What happened?" Raj mumbled as he started to wake up from his sleep.

"Shoot!" Jessie said to herself as she ran out of the confessional before Raj could realize what happened.

As she ran into the forest, a loud scream could be heard, saying, "What happened!?"

******

"Oof! We're free from the rope! Sort of," Lee said as he and Emily fell from the tree, still entwined with rope. "Now to find where Brandon took that list. We have to find it before he shows the other Armadillos."

"W-w-wait. H-h-how are we going to move? We're still stuck in these ropes, so we can't g-g-get up," Emily said nervously.

"We can inch-worm our way across, I guess. Here goes nothing!" The two squirmed in their ropes and began to move like a caterpillar across the forest floor.

******

A bat squealed as Mona accidentally woke it up. "Eek! This is terrible! Where is Tristan when you need him?" The girl stumbled and hit her head on the rock in front of her. "It's so dark. I wonder if my friends are going to be mad at me for this..." she wondered, but she went silent when she heard a pebble tumble behind her.

"Oh weird anime girl, where are you?" Alex was singing into the echoing darkness. "I need to get you out, you see, so can you please totally blow your cover?" He took a step forward and nearly stepped on Mona's cat tail. "Where ever can she be?"

Mona just held her breath until she could no longer hear Alex's footsteps. She got up and began to make her way to the nearby cave exit, stepping out into the bright sunlight when a loud voice behind her shouted, "Gotcha!"

Alex triumphantly fired four paint balls in rapid succession at the girl, who fell backwards from fright and avoided the shots. "Shoot! So close!"

"I wouldn't fire if I were you," Mona shakily said as she fumbled with her paintball gun.

"And what if I do?" Alex said she closed in on her. Just as he began to aim, a splatter of paint hit him on his right shoulder. "Hey! Who did this?"

"He did!" Annie shouted happily as she and Tom leaped down from a tree. Alex sighed and began to drag himself to camp.

"Hey guys! Thanks for the save!" Mona said as Tom pulled her up onto her feet. "How many of us are left?"

"I think it's just us three, plus Jake, Brandon, and Jessie," Annie responded. "We need to find the others before we get eliminated too." The three teens ran into the depths of the nearby swamp, safe from prying eyes.

******

"How long do we have to wait here?" Blaire asked Aziz. "Shouldn't we be wandering around, looking for more people to eliminate?"

"No! At this point in the game, we only have a few contestants left in the game, so it's better not to be found behind this bush than to find the others," was his stern reply.

"Yeah, you guys do that. My legs are turning purple from a lack of oxygen, so I'm gonna go out for a little walk, okay?" Eric said to his teammates as he stood up and strolled away.

"Fine! But don't blame me when our team loses!" Aziz shouted after him.

A distant "Ugh!" was heard, and Blaire shouted out into the eerily quiet forest, "Eric? Are you there?"

Aziz clamped his hand over her mouth. "Be quiet! You might attract attention to ourselves! Eric is probably out already, so we should focus on staying in the game!" he whispered vehemently into her ear.

She pried his hand off and told him, "I'm worried about his well-being. You've seen how weak his body is. I'm just going to check, okay?" She got up and followed Eric's footprints in the soft, loamy soil into the forest, Aziz sighing from aggravation behind her.

Blaire walked for a minute when she found Eric tied to a tree, unconscious and splattered with paint. "Eric! Hold on, I'll get you free!" She took a step forward, but fell into a deep ditch.

"Sucks for you two!" Brandon said as he peered down into the trench and shot a paintball at Blaire.

"With Blaire out, this leaves six players for the Armadillos and five players for the Deer!" Rob announced over the speakers. "Hurry it up, since you're starting to get boring!"

******

"Why doesn't anyone ever listen to my advice?" Aziz punched the confessional wall in his irritation, but accidentally opened the door accidentally.

"Huh? Who's in here?" Jessie peered in and immediately pulled out her paintball gun, but not fast enough. Aziz took her down within 5 seconds before closing the door again.

"Now, as I was saying, why doesn't anyone ever listen to me? I'm working so hard to save my team from elimination, but they keep on ruining everything! If only I wasn't on a team of losers."

******

"Snipers positioned. Ty, do you read me?"

"Yes Steve. I'm in the tree branch above you." Ty glared at his teammate, who was also positioned in a bush below Ty's tree.

"Shh! Someone's coming!" Mona, Tom, and Annie came into the view of the two teens who were hidden in the shadow of the leaves.

"Stop! I sense people here!" Annie whispered to her teammates. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and pointed to the bush that Steve was in. "Fire over there!"

Tom and Mona aimed for the shrub and fired, narrowly missing Steve but ruffling the leaves.

"I'd better take care of this before they can find me," Ty whispered to himself and aimed for Mona, but then decided to fire at Annie instead. "She's the bigger threat, so I might as well get her out." He fired at her, but, to his disbelief, her eyes glowed purple and the paintball appeared to stop in midair and curve back at Ty, sending him falling out of the tree in his vain attempt to avoid the paint ball.

"Yes! I don't know what you did there Annie, but we got him out! Eeeeeee!" Mona jumped for joy before she realized that Annie was covered with paint too. "Wait. How did you get out?"

"I don't know. I can't detect anyone else but Ty within 10 yards, so I'm guessing that Ty must have fired two paint balls and I only deflected one. Whatever, just try to find who ever is left in the game."

As Mona and Tom ran off towards the desert and Annie walked towards the main campgrounds, Ty stood up. "You're safe, Steve."

The gamer brushed his pants off as he got up. "Thanks man. Wish me luck on my mission."

"Yeah, whatever."

******

"There it is!" Lee and Emily had made much progress through the forest and were now staring at Lee's cellphone, lying in the grass, with Brandon nowhere in sight. "He must have dropped it while walking through here."

"Are you sure this isn't a t-t-trap?" Emily questioned, but her question was ignored as Lee inched closer and closer towards his phone.

"Gotcha!" was the last thing they heard before they both fell into the pit hidden beneath the soil. The duo heard an "Oof!" and saw that both Blaire and Eric were down in the dark pit.

"I t-t-told you it might have a trap!" Emily said to her partner.

"You know, that list of traps that you have in your phone is really helpful," Brandon teased as he walked off, laughing.

"At least he forgot that the phone fell down here in the pit with us," Lee said under his breath. "Now, can you two please help us out of these ropes?" he asked Blaire and Eric.

******

"And I'm done!" Jake proclaimed triumphantly. Sunburned and sweating, he looked up at the towering contraption he had built. "Looks kinda rickety, but I bet that it's functional."

"There he is!" He turned around to see Tom and Mona running towards him, panting. "Jake! Thank goodness you're still in! We've been looking all over for you!" The two newcomers looked at the machine, and Tom's eyes widened from the realization that it was his machine. He began to gesture wildly, showing his anger.

"Cool off, mate!" Jake said in an attempt to calm down his infuriated friend. "It was Austin, Hailey, and Brittney who stole your notebook, and I just happened to see this page when I got them out and they dropped the book. So, I thought I can use it to win it for our team!"

Tom looked at him with a concerned look, and Mona voiced his concern when Jake pulled a lever, saying "I'm not so sure about that. the machine is kinda rickety..."

"We'll be fine!" assured Jake, but as he spoke, electricity crackled from within the machine, and smoke began to pour out.

"What's happening!?" Mona shouted, but her cries were drowned out by the sound of the machine exploding. The last thing any of them saw was a rainbow blur of paint shooting up from the machine and the paintballs within showering down like nuclear fallout.

******

"Ugh. What a drag." Aziz sighed as he scanned the forest, seeing no one to shoot. "It's so annoying, not having anyone to shoot. I knew Blaire and Eric would get out!" He stood up and made his way deeper into the forest, where he saw Steve aiming the paintball gun in one hand and playing that video game he was always carrying with the other.

"Oh hey there!" Steve said as he looked down from his treetop abode.

"Wow. I'm surprised you're still in the game."

"I know. Me too." Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the ground, startling the animals of the forest. "What was that?"

Aziz looked up at the sky with a horrified expression. "I think we're about to find out!"

A steady patter of paintballs began to drizzle from the sky, and the two Deady Deer ran for cover. Steve whispered, "We might have gotten out if we hadn't moved." He gave a sigh before a torrent of paint came pouring down, coating the two boys and the forest with them in a multitude of colors.

"You were saying?" Aziz mocked before shoving the nerd into a puddle.

******

"I'm going to kill the person who did this! Who did this to me!? I swear, you motherf*****s better tell me who did, or else all of you will be killed!" Brandon smashed his fist against a tree, shaking it and sending more paint down on his head. The rest of the campers, those who got out before the explosion, chuckled a bit at the paint but then returned to their fearful demeanor.

Aziz and Steve stepped out from a bush, Steve spluttering from the paint in his mouth, while Mona, Jake, and Tom arrived from the camp trail, Mona shouting, "Baka, baka, baka!" and hitting Jake the entire way. Tom simply glared at the Australian with a look that could kill.

"Looks like our perpetrator has arrived," Ryan sneered as Jake walked past the paint-coated contestants. "Because of you, I have to spend thousands of dollars cleaning up the paint or else I'll get sued for an even larger amount of money!"

"He was the one! I knew you would screw up, you kangaroo-loving freak!" Brandon shouted as he made his way over to Jake, only to be held back by Wes' lasso.

"Can someone please explain what happened?" Lee asked as he, Emily, Blaire, and Eric pushed their way through the overwhelming clouds of fumes, fanning the chemicals aside. He and Emily were nearly paint-free, except for their shoes, of course. "It randomly started raining paint, but since Brandon trapped us in a pit trap, we were able dig ourselves into the cliff wall and remained unpainted."

"And it appears that we have our winners!" Ryan announced through his handy megaphone. "The Deadly Deer have secured their victory tonight!" The Deer cheered, while the Armadillos continued to glare at Jake. "Armadillos, see you at the elimination ceremony tonight!"

******

"I'm doomed! At least I had fun while I was here." Jake sighed and rested his head against his hand. "To think that I'm going to be out fourth in this entire contest when I was so sure that I was gonna last at least until the merge." He groaned.

******

"I'm not so sure that we should vote out Jake. I mean, he's a pretty valuable player, and he's a nice guy." The Alliance, as they simply called themselves, were gathered around their meeting place in the forest. Raj spoke again to fill in the awkward silence that followed his initial words. "I'm saying that we should vote someone else who's more harmful to the team overall, like Brandon.That guy scares us, and he might kill us if we don't follow his orders."

"Even though you have a point, I still insist on voting Jake off the island," Mona grumbled, her eyes still stinging from the paint that got into her eyes from the explosion. "We can't afford for that baka to stay on the island any longer, no matter strong and kind he maybe."

"I'm going to have to agree with Raj on this one," Jessie said that deep feminine voice she has. "And not just because he's my boyfriend, right?" She stared intently at Raj, who slowly moved away closer to Steve, who was shaking the paint out of his gaming console.

"I think Raj is right too, since I don't want to be beaten up again like yesterday," Joe said, shivering from the memory.

"Fine. I'll vote against Brandon instead, but we'll have to convince more people, and I don't think we'll get enough," Mona sighed, trying to release her anger.

******

"Welcome to your second elimination ceremony, Awesome Armadillos!" Ryan said ecstatically at the seventeen sullen and angry teens. "I'm pretty sure you know the basic rules, but just in case: if your name is announced, come pick up a marshmallow. If your name isn't, then you must take the Fling of Failure and never return. EVER. Let us begin, shall we?" Mrs. Rosenthal walked in with her tray of s'mores, the only dish she can prepare correctly.

"First up is Mona, Tom, Annie, and Wes." They gladly received their s'mores and looked intently at their friends.

"Summer, Harley, Jessie, Sheila, Daniella, and Tristan, please come up and receive your s'mores too." The six teens obliged, a sign of relief on their faces.

"Joe, Kat, and the twins." As the four went up to get their symbols of safety, Raj and Brandon began to sweat, Jake simply lowered his head, awaiting his fate.

"Raj, you're safe too. and the last s'more goes to...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...Jake." Jake looked up from his depressed daze with a look of amazement. Brandon momentarily had a look of amazement too before it curdled into a stormy scowl as he began to realize what happened.

"How the hell did this happen!? You voted for me instead of that pansy who lost us the challenge?"

"Yup," was Kat's curt response.

"Why you impudent little-" His shouts were cut off as Rob and Ryan hauled him away to the giant slingshot on the dock.

******

"Those bastards! They'll never get away with this! I'll make their lives so miserable they'll wish that they voted off that redneck Australian instead." Brandon stared at the camera, scowling. "I will find you, you little wretches, and as for who I want to win, I hope that no one from my team wins. None of them deserves it.

******

"I'll be back! Mark my words, I'll come back to kill you all you motherf*****s, you hear!" Brandon cursed the foulest of swears as Rob dutifully tossed the punk onto the catapult and launched him soaring into the air.

"Good riddance!" Sheila said as she and the other Armadillos cheered for the bully's elimination.

The camera pointed back to Ryan, who began to conclude the show. "With Brandon finally gone, will the remaining campers finally have peace? Probably not, but who cares? Find out next week on Camp Survivor!"