The morning mist over Lake Wawanakwa was as thick as porridge, obscuring the pine tops from the rising sun. Chris McLean stood at the edge of the camp, arms crossed, wearing that signature sadistic smirk that never boded well for the campers.
Before him lay two piles of gear: brown, furry deer suits with unwieldy antlers on one side, and camouflage hunting vests with heavy paintball markers on the other.
"Welcome hunters... and the prey!" Chris bellowed into his megaphone. "Today's game is simple. Hunters must hunt the opposing team's deer. But beware! This is also a game of trust. If you accidentally—or intentionally—hit your own teammate, the point goes to the other team!"
Once roles were assigned, the tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Screaming Gophers:
* Hunters: Ezekiel, Lindsay, Owen, and Leshawna.
* Deer: Heather, Gwen, Cody, and Justin.
Killer Bass:
* Hunters: Harold, Izzy, and Eva.
* Deer: Duncan, Tyler, DJ, and Bridgette.
Eva's Campaign: The Internal War
As soon as the starting signal sounded, the Killer Bass team immediately felt that today wasn't going to be about scoring points. Duncan tried to march toward the forest with an air of authority, but the deer suit and the massive antlers mounted on his head trampled any shred of dignity he had left. Behind him, DJ and Bridgette tried to find cover, but the greatest threat didn't come from the Gophers.
Eva gripped her paintball marker as if it were an actual assault rifle. Her eyes burned with a frozen rage that had only grown hotter since Katie's departure the night before. Beside her, Harold tried to move tactically, but Eva wasn't interested in tactics.
"Eva, look! There's Justin in the bushes!" Harold pointed ahead.
Eva didn't even look. Her eyes were fixed on the retreating Duncan. "The Gophers can wait, Harold. First, I'm going to rip the heart out of the Bass."
A few minutes later, deep in the thicket, Eva caught up to Duncan. The boy was struggling with a low branch that had hooked onto his antlers. Duncan swore and was about to turn around when the first orange paintball hit him square in the forehead. Then came the second to his chest, the third to his stomach, and the fourth to his leg.
"Hey! Are you crazy?!" Duncan screamed as the sticky paint blinded him. "We're on the same team! You're giving them points, you animal!"
"I don't care about points, Duncan!" Eva screamed back, pulling the trigger again. "This was for Katie! And this is for thinking you could play with us and get away with it!"
Eva didn't stop. After painting Duncan orange, she systematically hunted down Tyler, DJ, and Bridgette as well. Tyler was just trying to wave to Lindsay from a distance when Eva's ball hit him dead center. DJ fled crying from the fierce girl, but Eva showed no mercy. She shot four of her own teammates, which immediately meant 4 points for the Gophers.
Reflex and Protection: Ezekiel and Gwen
In another corner of the forest, Ezekiel prowled silently. During his years on the farm, he had learned how to move soundlessly through the wild.
Owen had fallen behind in the first five minutes because he found a patch of berries to taste, leaving Zeke alone.
Suddenly, he spotted his own team's deer: Gwen and Cody. Gwen was trying to stay unnoticed, but the brown suit stood out against the bushes. Just then, a branch snapped above Zeke. It was Izzy, who had completely transformed into a jungle warrior. Izzy saw Gwen and instantly snapped her marker into aim.
Ezekiel's body reacted faster than his mind. It was pure, raw protective reflex.
"Gwen, down!" he shouted.
Zeke dove, right at the moment Izzy's blue paintball left the barrel. The projectile exploded against Ezekiel's side. Zeke crashed to the ground but immediately knelt in front of Gwen, shielding her like a human wall.
"Zeke! You... you took that for me?" Gwen looked at the blue-stained boy in shock.
"I didn't want you to get hit, eh," Zeke replied simply, trying to catch his breath.
The Bear Attack: Owen and Zeke Team Up
The romantic moment was shattered by a blood-curdling roar. It was Cody's cry for help. A massive grizzly bear had cornered him against a rock wall. Cody was trembling, and his deer costume only served to further provoke the wild beast.
Zeke and Gwen reached the scene, where Owen was cowering behind a thick tree.
"Owen! Help him!" Zeke shouted.
"I can't! It's going to eat me!" Owen whimpered.
"No, it won't! Not if we charge together! You're the strongest one among us!" Zeke grabbed Owen's shoulder. "If we rush it at once, it'll get scared. I'll distract it, and you use your weight!"
Grabbing a heavy branch, Zeke stood before the bear, waving and shouting. The bear turned toward him. Owen, seeing Cody's mortal terror and Zeke's self-sacrifice, suddenly found a burst of courage. With a massive roar, he charged the animal. Owen's momentum was so great that the bear stumbled back in surprise.
Zeke then grabbed the uninjured Cody, and they scrambled to safer ground. Seeing the loud and aggressive group, the bear decided to lumber off into the thicket instead.
Harold's Masterpiece
While everyone else was preoccupied with the drama, Harold decided to show what "technical skills" were worth. Silently, like a ninja, he stalked the Gophers' deer.
First, he caught Justin, who was busy checking himself out in a pool of water. Splatt. An orange blotch on the model's face. Then he caught up to Cody, who was still in shock from the bear. Splatt.
Finally, came Heather. Heather was currently screaming at Lindsay because the blonde girl had accidentally shot her in the back (that was already 1 point for the Bass).
Heather tried to flee, but Harold unleashed a shot from thirty meters away with such precision that it hit Heather's antlers perfectly, sending paint dripping down her face.
The Result at the Campfire
When the teams returned, Chris McLean nearly choked with laughter seeing the orange-drenched Duncan and the blue-smeared Ezekiel.
"Well, let's look at the points, because this was a math competition today!" Chris grinned.
* Screaming Gophers: 4 points, because Eva executed her own (Duncan, Tyler, DJ, Bridgette).
* Killer Bass:
* 1 point, because Lindsay shot Heather (friendly fire).
* 3 points, because Harold shot Justin, Cody, and Heather.
* +0.5 points for Harold, because he was the only hunter who didn't shoot his own and didn't "play the hero."
"The final score: 4.5 - 4 for the Killer Bass!" Chris shouted. "Bass, victory is yours! Gophers... someone is flying tonight!"
Heather was fuming. She stomped over to Ezekiel:
"You idiot! Eva handed us the victory on a silver platter with those 4 points! If you, as a hunter, had shot just one person instead of romancing Gwen, we would have won! Because of you, we're voting someone off tonight!"
Ezekiel looked silently at Justin, his best friend, who was disappointedly wiping away the paint. Zeke knew: the battle against Heather was about to get truly bloody.
The Elimination Ceremony: The Theft
The sun had dipped below the horizon, leaving streaks of bruised purple across the sky. The Screaming Gophers sat in stony silence. Chris stepped into the light, holding a tray of marshmallows.
"Go to the confessional," Chris commanded. "It's time to decide who goes home."
The Votes:
Ezekiel, Gwen, Justin, Owen, Cody ➡️ All voted for Heather.
Heather, Lindsay, Leshawna ➡️ All voted for Justin.
When everyone returned, Justin looked confident. Zeke felt a sense of relief—they had five votes against Heather. She was finally gone.
"The following people are safe," Chris began. "Gwen... Owen... Leshawna... Cody... Lindsay... Ezekiel."
Only two people remained: Justin and Heather. Justin smirked, waiting for Heather's name to be called.
"The final marshmallow goes to... Justin!" Chris announced.
"Wait!" Heather screamed, standing up. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, carved wooden figure: The Total Drama Immunity Idol.
Chris McLean's jaw dropped. He actually fumbled his clipboard.
"What the—?! Heather... that... that was in Chef's kitchen! We weren't even supposed to reveal that idol until the next challenge! How did you get in there?" Chris was genuinely shocked; this was a twist even the producers hadn't planned for.
"I did a little 'midnight snacking' in Chef's quarters," Heather sneered, holding the idol high. "This makes me immune, doesn't it?"
Chris scratched his head, frustrated. "Well... the rules say if you show the idol before the results are final, you're untouchable. All votes against you are void. This means the person with the second highest number of votes goes home. Justin... sorry, man. That's you."
The Goodbye
Silence fell over the camp. Ezekiel felt like a lead weight had dropped into his stomach. He ran to Justin's side.
"No! This isn't right! Justin, I tried... I tried everything!" Zeke's voice cracked.
Justin stood up slowly. He didn't yell. He looked at Zeke and gave him a faint, genuine smile—the first one that wasn't for the cameras.
"Don't beat yourself up, Zeke. Heather is a snake, but you... you're a real friend." Justin gripped Zeke's hand. "You were the only one who didn't just see the model; you saw the teammate. Break that witch for me, okay?"
Ezekiel nodded, his eyes blurring. He watched his best friend, his first true ally, board the Boat of Losers.
As the engine roared, Zeke turned back and looked Heather straight in the eye.
Heather was triumphantly chewing her marshmallow, Lindsay standing loyally by her side.
Ezekiel's fists clenched. Justin was gone, but the war had only just begun.
Later...
**Confessional: Heather**
Heather sits on the wooden bench of the outhouse, leaning her head against the rough wall. She looks exhausted. She's still covered in streaks of orange paint, and a stray bit of deer antler is still tangled in her hair. She sighs, her usual sharp, confident mask slipping for just a few seconds.
"Look," she says to the camera, her voice lower and less performative than usual. "I know I was hard on Ezekiel out there. And honestly? Seeing him jump in front of that paint for Gwen... and then facing down a literal grizzly bear for Cody..." She pauses, picking at a dried speck of orange paint on her arm. "It was brave. It was stupidly, annoyingly brave."
She looks down at her hands, then back at the lens with an expression that almost looks like regret.
"Zeke is... he's actually a decent guy. He's loyal, he's hardworking, and he doesn't have a fake bone in his body. In the real world? If we weren't trapped on this disgusting island competing for a million dollars... maybe we could have actually been friends. He's the kind of person you'd actually want in your corner."
She let out a sharp, bitter laugh and her eyes hardened again, the "Queen Bee" persona snapping back into place.
"But this isn't the real world. This is a game. And in this game, being a 'decent guy' gets you trampled. His loyalty to Gwen and his 'outcast' friends makes him a target, and it makes him a liability to my game. I can't afford to be 'friends' with someone who chooses feelings over points."
She reaches up and yanks the broken piece of antler out of her hair, tossing it aside.
"I'm doing what I have to do. If that makes me the villain, fine. I'd rather be a villain with a million dollars than a 'nice person' on the Boat of Losers."
She stands up to leave, but stops at the door, whispering one last thing almost to herself.
"I just wish he wasn't so damn likable. It makes hating him so much more work. Sometimes I feel like he's such an annoying little brother to me, he even looks a bit like my two younger brothers who are twins..."
After that she left and went to take a shower.