(La’nooba Tribe)

“What am I going to do?! Crane and I have been together ever since we got rid of Bonnie and now he’s gone!” Mel exclaimed, her eyes watering. “Why Crane?! He wasn’t a physical threat! I thought we were guaranteed survival from Tribal Council because Jonathan didn’t have Immunity!”

Mel was quick to go to bed when she got back from Tribal Council. The last thing she wanted tonight was to talk to anybody. Marty, on the other hand, stopped Elias from entering the shelter and pulled him aside.

“What the crap is your problem, Elias?!” Marty asked. “I thought we were targeting Jonathan! Crane wasn’t a physical threat at all!”

“Marty, I found out about your little alliance with Mel and Crane.” Elias pointed out. “Now that I think about it, it would have been the perfect plan as well. Me telling you strategies and you relaying them to your cohorts.”

This threw Marty for a loop. He did a double-take at the actor. “Wait. You knew?!” He asked. “How’d you find out?!”

“Someone told me. Now that Tribal Council has passed, I’m glad they did.” Elias said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go to bed.”

Brushing past Marty, Elias stepped into the shelter to go to sleep. Marty sighed and walked in after him.

“So someone found out about the alliance we had? Man, I seriously thought we were keeping it secret enough for people not to figure things out.” Marty moaned. “Great. This means that Mel and I are in serious trouble for later Tribal Councils for being a part of such a major alliance.”

When Sandy ended up going into the shelter, this left the alliance of Jonathan, Zoe and D’looa outside on the campgrounds.

Zoe cheered lightly so as not to alert anyone. “This is awesome! We were outnumbered and without the idol and we STILL survived Tribal Council!” She cheered.

Jonathan chuckled nervously and held his nose. Zoe may have been cheering lightly, but the stench she was giving off revealed her real emotions. “Y-Yeah. It sure is something, isn’t it?” He asked.

“So what now?” D’looa asked.

“We continue to whittle down their alliance.” Jonathan replied. “After we take all three of them out, we’ll vote out Elias, then take out Sandy at the final four.”

“So I’ll have to put up with Elias for another several days.” D’looa sighed.

“Think you can manage?” Jonathan asked.

“He’ll go eventually and we’ve got the power.” D’looa shrugged. “I’ll try.”

The three finally decided to go to bed and entered the shelter, preparing for the next day.

(La’nooba Tribe, Day 31)

“It’s day 31 out of 39. Only eight more days remain in the competition and the others are starting to fight fierce because everyone wants to win at this point.” D’looa explained. “I’m not seeing this as winning. I’m seeing it as lasting one Tribal Council at a time and then winning if I make the final Council.”

D’looa emerged from the shelter and looked around. A few people were up, but the Twi’lek girl couldn’t spot Sandy around camp and she was missing from the ones still sleeping in the shelter. The Twi’lek jedi scratched her head as she started looking around.

“Sandy?” D’looa asked. “You around here anywhere?”

Suddenly hearing loud snoring, D’looa looked up and saw a black-haired woman sound asleep on a tree branch. Scratching her head, D’looa picked up a branch and poked Sandy with it. Afer a few pokes, Sandy jolted awake, tumbling off the tree branch and hitting the ground nine feet down.

“Oh! Morning, D’looa!” Sandy said cheerfully as she got to her feet.

“Uh…Sandy, why were you sleeping in a tree?” D’looa asked.

“Oh. Sorry about that. I couldn’t sleep with my snoring and realized that I had to find somewhere else to sleep to get away from it.” Sandy replied. “You know? I find it near impossible to sleep with myself sometimes.”

D’looa stared at Sandy strangely. “You…You couldn’t sleep…Because of your OWN snoring…” She repeated.

“Uh…Yeah. Is that unusual?” Sandy asked.

D’looa blinked a couple of times. “Uh…Forget it.” She said as she walked away.

“Actually, one of the reasons I opted to sleep outside was because some of the others have started talking in their sleep. I mean, Elias dreaming that he was in a casino doesn’t really surprise me, but Marty was dreaming about a night with his girlfriend.” Sandy said, looking traumatized for the first time the game. “Uh…Yeah. That…That was…Pretty scary…Man. Can koopas even DO that?”

Meanwhile, Mel was sadly sitting at the beach as Marty was fishing beside her. Marty saw Mel’s upset look and sighed. “Mel, I know you’re upset at the fact that Crane was blindsided, but you can’t let it affect your game.” He said.

“I can’t help it, Marty. He was there for me whenever Bonnie yelled at me. I’d never felt so secure around someone else before.” Mel explained with a sigh. “And now he’s gone and I think we’re going next.”

“Don’t think like that, Mel.” Marty shook his head as he felt a fish bite the fishing rod. “We can still pull something out of our sleeves. I don’t think Crane would want you to give up so easily so soon after he gets voted out.”

Mel seemed to ignore him and sighed again. “I’m sorry, Marty. Crane and I probably doomed you by bringing you into our alliance.” She apologized. “Now you’re probably going right after I will.”

“Mel, what did I just say?” Marty asked as he started reeling a fish in. “Don’t think negatively. We’ll find a way out of this.”

“Marty’s such a sweetheart. I don’t know who his girlfriend is, but she’s one lucky girl.” Mel explained. “I’m glad that Crane and I became friends with him, but at the same time so sorry that we ended up putting him in such a bad position.”

“Well, how are we going to do this, then?” Mel asked. “I mean, the fact is that we seem pretty screwed.”

“We just need to find a way to shift the attention to Jonathan & Zoe.” Marty explained. “The way the others are playing the game, it seems that they don’t think physical strength is as threatening as a strong alliance.”

Later, Jonathan and Zoe were off to the side of the campgrounds, talking together about strategy (D’looa had gone to get fruit so as not to give the impression of an alliance; she would be filled in later).

“So who do you think’s a bigger threat?” Zoe asked. “Marty may not be a physical threat, but he’s still stronger than Mel is.”

“But Mel’s been playing a better game.” Jonathan reminded. “She’s bound to get more jury votes than Marty would in the end.”

“You sure?” Zoe asked. “I always thought that it’d be about even for jury votes.”

Jonathan quickly shook his head. “Either way, Mel and Marty each have the votes of one another and Crane, but Mel probably has at least a vote from Barney as well.” He explained. “In the end, she’s a bigger threat than he is.”

“What’s great about an alliance with Jonathan is that he’s capable of putting together ideas to form a plan that he can use to get us further into the game.” Zoe explained. “I mean, he started off as a swing vote, then got all this confidence after having a…Talk…With…” Zoe suddenly looked off to the side of the camera and narrowed her eyes. “Wait a minute!” She said in realization as she left the confessional camera’s range of sight.

Elias looked to his right and saw Zoe coming over, not looking very pleased. “So YOU’RE the one responsible!” She accused.

“Zoe, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Elias said, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t give me that! Jonathan got this so-called great idea to vote off our strongest member after we kidnapped Angie and I knew that she planted ideas in his head!” Zoe pointed out. “I know she was in league with you, so Angie giving Jonathan those ideas was probably YOUR idea in the first place!”

“Took you long enough to figure it out.” Elias said with a smirk. “Besides, you should thank me. If I hadn’t had told Angie to give those ideas to someone on your tribe, he may not have gotten the ability to become such a powerful player.”

Zoe, in a strange step out of character, growled. She turned around and pointed her tail straight at Elias. The actor’s eyes widened.

As this was happening, Jonathan was relaying the information to a recently-arrived D’looa. “We think we should focus on Mel first.” He suggested.

“Marty’s stronger. Don’t you think we should focus on him first?” D’looa asked.

“Zoe asked me the same thing. Mel is more likely to get more jury votes in the end.” Jonathan replied.

D’looa pondered this for a couple of seconds, then nodded. “You make a good point. She HAS been playing a better game.” She replied.

Suddenly, the two smelled a putrid stench coming towards them. They turned, expecting to see an excited Zoe, but instead saw Elias casually walking past them, giving off a horrible smell as he walked towards the beach.

“If you need me, I’ll be bathing in the ocean for about six hours.” Elias said casually.

After Elias had gone, Jonathan and D’looa looked at each other for a few seconds before breaking down laughing.

“I’d like to take this moment to say that no one’s ever seen Zoe mad, so I can safely say that no one could have ever expected her to do something like that.” Elias said in defense. “Therefore, any curse words I may have shouted in surprise as Zoe was doing that are completely justifiable.”

Needless to say, the long swim in the ocean didn’t do a lot to take away the smell Zoe had planted on Elias, and when supper came around and everyone was sitting around the campfire, Elias was comically sitting three feet from anyone else.

“Oh, come on! It doesn’t smell THAT bad!” Elias said.

“Dude, you smell worse than Zoe does when she gets REALLY excited!” Sandy laughed. “What did you say to her to make her do that?”

“It’s not important.” Elias muttered.

“Zoe?” Jonathan asked.

“It’s not important.” Zoe shook her head.

Jonathan lifted an eyebrow, having never seen his friend this secretive before.

Eventually, night showed up. The seven contestants remaining in the game went to bed, wondering what the challenge would be the following day.

However, just after everyone had gone in, Elias was ejected from the shelter. Elias landed on the sand as a blanket was thrown out after him.

“You are all so immature!” Elias shouted before grabbing his blanket and curling up by a tree.

(La’nooba Tribe, Day 32)

“Well, today is the day. Today I defend my title of Immunity Champion in a battle of wits, strength and keen senses of smell. I’m ready for anything that host throws at us, so everyone else had…” Sandy said before trailing off. “Oh. Wait. If we have a Reward Challenge today, I guess I’m technically not defending my title…You all just got a little lucky!!”

“Uh…What’s Sandy doing, now?” Zoe asked as she watched Sandy doing a strange dance on the beach.

“I’ve sorta stopped trying to figure out anything about her and ignore her.” Marty shook his head.

Uh…You can’t really ignore her if you tried to.” The skunk reminded.

“Also true.” Marty sighed. “Hey, Sandy? What are you trying to do, exactly?”

“My ‘Dance of Good Luck’. It’s an old tribal thing I picked up when I was younger.” Sandy replied. “It’s supposed to bring luck to whoever does it. Hopefully, this means I’ll do well in the next challenge.”

Thunder suddenly struck overhead and a small cloud appeared over Sandy’s head, starting a torrential downpour on her and her alone.

“…Or maybe it was my Lithuanian Rain Dance.” Sandy scratched her head. “I always get those two mixed up.”

Meanwhile, Jonathan and D’looa were walking up to the treemail box to see if the tribe had gotten any new mail.

“I think we’re in a good position.” Jonathan noted. “No one knows that we’re in an alliance and we’ve diverted attention to Mel and Marty.”

“I know, but remember that we’re still not in the clear yet.” D’looa reminded.

“I’m not going to disagree that we’re in a good position, because we are. Jonathan just seems to have forgotten that no one’s safe at this point in the game.” D’looa pointed out. “One way or another, everyone here is a threat to everyone else.”

Jonathan reached into the box and pulled out a letter. “Looks like we’ve got treemail.” He said as he handed D’looa the letter. “You take it back to the others and I’ll go around the long way.”

“Got it.” D’looa nodded as she and Jonathan parted ways, with her going back to the campgrounds the main way. “We’ve got treemail, everyone!”

The other finalists gathered arund the Twi’lek girl curiously. “What’s the challenge?” Elias asked.

Mel turned and saw Jonathan coming over from another direction. “Where were you?”She asked.

“Doing a confessional.” Jonathan replied simply. “I was just wrapping up when D’looa made the announcement.”

“Speaking of, the letter says ‘How’s your puzzle-solving skills’?” D’looa continued.

“Ah. That’s much better.” Elias said with a smirk. “I can do something like that easily.”

“You said that about the last challenge as well, mac.” Sandy taunted.

“Well, excuse me for not paying attention to any of those stupid ‘memes’ of yours.” Elias rolled his eyes.

(Reward Challenge)

The seven finalists walked out into a clearing in the jungle and found their mat sitting nearby. Walking over to it, the seven contestants stepped onto it and awaited the host to start talking.

“Welcome to your next Reward Challenge, La’nooba Tribe. For this challenge, we’re taking a classic puzzle and expanding it a few sizes.” SSBFreak said. Everyone suddenly became aware of the seven squares aside, each one containing a large sliding puzzle. “You probably know of these types of puzzles, where you can only move one piece at a time and the pieces need to be moved in a specific order to solve it. The premise of this challenge is simple: All you need to do is solve the puzzle. Whoever can get their puzzle solved first will win Reward.” The host said. “For the Reward, you’ll be playing for a day-long trip to a more-tropical part of the island, which I can guarantee will be nicer than the campgrounds that you’ve grown accustomed to during the month.”

The finalists looked at each other, wondering who would be the one to win the Reward.

“If you’ll all choose your field of play, we can get started.” SSBFreak said.

Everyone walked towards a random puzzle, and when hey arrived they all saw that the puzzles were scrambled up differently.

“We need to prevent people from cheating, so you all have a unique way to solve your own puzzle.” SSBFreak explained. “Okay, for Reward, Survivors ready…Go!”

The seven contestants quickly got to work on trying to solve their puzzles. Marty was quick to complain about the challenge.

“Man. I was never good with these things.” Marty sighed as he scratched his head before sliding a piece down.

“Let’s see…Maybe if I did this…” Mel mused as she moved a piece down, providing an opening for another piece to move to the right.

“This isn’t so bad.” Jonathan said to himself as he continued to work on his puzzle.

The contestants worked on the puzzles for a little bit before SSBFreak decided to start asking questions. “Elias, you seem fairly comfortable with the challenge.” He explained. “You think you can win?”

“It’s too hard to tell this early. Try asking that again once people have started getting close to completion.” Elias replied back.

SSBFreak shrugged and went on to the next person. “Marty, it looks like you’re struggling with this, on the other hand.” He said. “You didn’t like these types of puzzles?”

“Not in the slightest. It always took me forever to get close to finishing.” Marty shook his head. “And even then there were still at least two pieces in the wrong places.”

“How about you, Mel?” SSBFreak asked. “You seem to be going at a decent pace.”

“Sorry, but this is the one challenge that requires my full attention.” Mel pointed out, not stopping her attempts to solve the puzzle. “I’d appreciate it if you left me alone.”

SSBFreak blinked a couple of times. “Man. That’s a real polite way to say ‘screw you’.” He said before moving on. “You have any plans this time, Jonathan?”

“Like usual, there’s no real strategy involved.” Jonathan replied. “Things like this just require a lot of luck to pull off.”

The seven contestants continued to work on the puzzles a bit longer. The ones that seemed to be surging ahead for this challenge were Elias and Mel, although Jonathan and D’looa weren’t slowing down either. Zoe was struggling a little bit and Marty’s still looked like a jumbled mess. Sandy’s looked similar, but she was moving the pieces around so frequently that no one could get a good glimpse of her area.

“Sandy, you’re not even paying attention, are you?” SSBFreak asked.

“Hey, I figure that if I scramble these pieces around fast enough, I’ll be sure to stumble upon something before too long.” Sandy replied cheerfully. “It sure beats actually thinking about where the pieces would go.”

SSBFreak paused, then shook his head before moving to the next person. “D’looa, you’ve been pretty quiet.” He noted. “What are you doing over there?”

“When you focus on a puzzle, you don’t really want to say anything.” D’looa cast a surprisingly-dark glance at the host. “It just throws you off.”

“Uh…Noted.” SSBFreak said before continuing on. “Zoe, it looks like you’re struggling.”

“I’m not familiar with these puzzles.” Zoe sighed. “I never really did a lot of these as a kid.”

“You still ARE a kid.” Elias mused with a smirk, not passing up the opportunity.

“Don’t make me spray you again, buster!” Zoe shouted.

“Well, keep at it, guys. I’ll check up on you in a few minutes.” SSBFreak said as he left the contestants to the puzzles.

A few more minutes passed. A few of the contestants were looking pretty close to completing their puzzles. On the other hand, Marty looked like he had all but given up on his puzzle.

SSBFreak noticed this. “Marty, you’re not even trying to finish.” He noted.

“I’ve probably just made the puzzle much worse than it started off as.” Marty shook his head. “There’s no way I’ll be able to win now.”

“It’s getting down to the wire, Elias.” SSBFreak said. “You think you need to pick up the pace to win?”

“If I pick up the pace, I may overlook something.” Elias replied. “With a puzzle like this, that’s the last thing you want.”

SSBFreak looked at the next person, Sandy, only to see that she was still constantly moving her pieces around her area, seemingly not paying attention.

“Sandy, are you close to finishing?” SSBFreak asked.

“How should I know?” Sandy asked. “I’ve been having way too much fun to pay attention!”

SSBFreak shook his head in hopelessness before continuing. “You’ve been making progress, Jonathan.” He noted. “You think you can still win?”

“My only hope is that the leaders run into a few problems that allow me to catch up a bit.” Jonathan said. “I’m not sure if I’d have a chance otherwise.”

“D’looa, how do-”

“I’m finished!”

Everyone quickly stopped what they were oing and turned to see a heavily-breathing Mel standing over her completed puzzle, which was a picture of the Survivor logo (with an empty space in the bottom right corner).

“That’s the completed puzzle, alright.” SSBFreak nodded. “The challenge is over! Mel wins Reward!”

(Later…)

“Congratulations on winning the challenge, Mel. As a Reward, you get to spend the day over at the tropical side of the island, where you’ll enjoy a good swim, good food and a relaxing rest for tomorrow.” SSBFreak explained before looking at the other six contestants. “But going alone wouldn’t be very fun. You can pick one person to go along with you, so whom will it be?”

“Marty.” Mel nodded without hesitating.

Marty shrugged and approached Mel. The other five contestants looked a little disappointed.

“Okay. Mel and Marty will be gone for the rest of the day and will rejoin the rest of you at tomorrow’s challenge.” SSBFreak explained. “So, until then, you can all head back to camp.”

The seven contestants parted ways, with Mel and Marty walking towards a helicopter and the other five leaving the clearing to start their trek back to camp.

(La’nooba Tribe)

“Mel won her first individual challenge and chose Marty to go along with her, not that anyone else was really surprised.” Jonathan shrugged. “I mean, by now everyone knows that they were in an alliance with Crane and they both know that they’re targets now. I just need to finalize a few things with the others to make sure.”

“So we’re good with getting rid of Mel if she doesn’t win Immunity?” Jonathan asked.

“She IS the bigger jury threat out of the two, I’ll admit.” Elias nodded. “We should probably vote her out sooner rather than later.”

“But what about Marty?” D’looa asked (purposefully to keep people from guessing an alliance). “He’s just as big of a threat as she is.”

“That may be so, but Mel’s got more potential to get votes from the jury.” Elias replied.

“Yeah. Not only would Mel have votes from Marty and Crane, but she’d probably have Barney’s vote as well.” Jonathan added.

“Not that it really matters, right?” Zoe asked. “I mean, we’d be getting rid of one right after the other, wouldn’t we?”

“That’s if the one we don’t vote off doesn’t win the next Immunity, though.” D’looa added.

“I could always-” Sandy supplied.

“NO!” Everyone else shouted as one.

Sandy folded her arms and pouted.

“These people aren’t seeing that I’m smarter than I’m giving myself credit for. Then again, that’s probably a good thing because then I won’t be viewed as a threat.” Sandy said before forming an evil smirk. “But just you wait! Soon, I’ll play them all so bad that they won’t see it coming until three minutes after it’s happened!” She then broke into a round of evil, psychotic laughter for a few seconds before freezing. “Uh…Sorry about that. Those tendancies come and go as they please.”

“Look, I think we all agree that we should just focus on the present for now.” Elias suggested. “We’ll vote out Mel at Tribal Council, and if she wins Immunity, we’ll vote out Marty.”

“It’s not like the Hidden Immunity Idol’s still in play.” Zoe shrugged.

“They actually seem to be under the impression that I’ll stick with them for the duration of the game. I know for a fact that I’m expendable once Mel and Marty go.” Elias said, arms folded. “I need to think of a way to secure myself a spot in the game after each Tribal Council, and let me promise you that I WILL come up with a way.”

(Tropical Location)

“Whoa! This place is amazing!” Marty said, looking at the layout of the part of the island he and Mel had been deposited into. “Look at the view of the ocean we have!”

“Yeah. It really is breathtaking, isn’t it.” Mel nodded.

The tropical part of the island was clearly a sight to behold. The trees somehow looked much fuller than the ones from camp, and the long beach went in a horseshoe shape going inwards, providing a good view of the ocean no matter where a person would be sitting on the beach. The sand was white and the water was crystal clear, providing a view of a lot of coral underneath the surface.

“Hey, thanks for bringing me along, Mel.” Marty said. “This is awesome.”

“Hey, no problem. I mean, who else would I bring?” Mel chuckled.

Marty gave a chuckle of his own, but on the inside he knew what Mel was thinking.

“Mel SO would have wanted to bring Crane here, and if he was still in the game, she totally would have.” Marty explained. “Not that I’d feel bad about that, but the fact that Crane isn’t here in the first place is enough to dampen Mel’s spirits. I can tell.”

The two youngsters enjoyed a long swim in the clear water and were relaxing on the beach by the time the sun was setting. They knew they had a long day ahead of them, but they weren’t going to back down from a challenge that easily.

Marty decided to strike up a conversation and opened his mouth. “How do you think we can survive the next Tribal Council, Mel?” He asked. “You getting any ideas?”

“We need to think of some way to shift attention to Jonathan and Zoe. They’re just as big as threats as we are, but they’re stronger than us, so that makes them a bigger threat in the end.” Mel replied. “We just need to make the others realize that, and I’m not sure how…”

“We’ll definitely think of something.” Marty nodded. “And when we do, no one else will see it coming.”

“I sure hope you’re right, Marty.” Mel shook her head. “I just think that we’ll be in serious trouble otherwise.”

“The odds aren’t good. Everyone knows by now that Marty was in on my alliance with Crane, thus making us all a collective threat.” Mel explained. “Marty and I will try our hardest to come up with a plan to outlast the others. We owe Crane that much…”

(La’nooba Tribe)

“Sandy, come here for a second.” Elias said as he lured Sandy away from the others while they were distracted. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I need to talk strategy with you.”

“What’s on your mind, mac?” Sandy asked.

“I’m not sure if we should stick to this idea of Jonathan’s the entire way through.” Elias said. “Let’s face it. Once we get rid of Marty and Mel, we’re probably next.”

“Yeah, but I always figure it’s best to cross the bridge when I get there.” Sandy shrugged.

“Why am I not surprised?” Elias muttered to himself. “Maybe I’m better off talking to D’looa…”

“What was I thinking in trying to get through to that woman? It’s like everything goes in one ear and out the other.” Elias sighed. “I thought she’d be a good alliance member because she’d listen to me, but half the problem is actually TRYING to get her to listen to me.”

“I just thought you’d be interested in a way to get further into the game then you normally would.” Elias pointed out. “You’ll probably be the first target after eliminating Mel and Marty.”

“Aaand…Why would I join you when I seem to be doing well enough on my own?” Sandy quizzed, folding her arms and lifting an eyebrow with a smirk.

“I think I’m perfectly capable of putting a plan together.” Elias replied, folding his own arms. “I mean, you have to agree that I’m the smartest one left, right?”

Sandy paused, staring at Elias with an odd face. A smirk floated across the crazy woman’s face as she started snickering, which progressed into a chuckle, until finally becoming full-fledged insane laughter. Sandy continued to laugh for several seconds as Elias stared at her strangely before she finally slowed her laughter down.

Sandy’s laughter came to an end as she wiped a tear from her eye. “I’m sorry. What was the question, again?” She asked.

“…Forget it.”

“Heh heh. This is awesome. The so-called smartest guy on the island thinks he can manipulate me. I was honestly half-tempted to go along with it at first to give myself a laugh, but decided against it.” Sandy shrugged. “I mean, how many people would end up voting for me in the end if I was aligned with Elias?”

Night eventually came along. Everyone decided to head to bed, as they knew that there was an Immunity Challenge the following day and they all needed to be prepared.

(La’nooba Tribe, Day 33)

“We’re going to have an Immunity Challenge today, and this late in the game everyone’s going to be wanting it.” Jonathan said. “No one knows what the challenge is, but we’ll be needing to bring our A game if we want to win over everyone else.”

“You think you guys are ready for the challenge?” Jonathan asked his alliance members. “We need to make sure that neither Marty nor Mel wins it.”

“Actually, Mel’s the only one we need to focus on.” D’looa said. “And it’s not like it matters. We’ll vote for whoever doesn’t win Immunity.”

“But if we don’t take Mel out now, she has the potential to end all of our games.” Jonathan countered. “We need to make absolute certain that she doesn’t win.”

“Jonathan, you’re worrying too much.” D’looa insisted.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m sure SOMEONE would be able to beat out Mel in the Immunity Challenge.” Zoe said. “There’s a six-in-seven chance that it’ll be anyone but Mel.”

“Well, I for one am going to be trying my hardest.” Jonathan said.

“Don’t get me wrong, Jonathan. We’ll all be trying our hardest.” D’looa said.

“Jonathan’s really been acting worried about the Immunity Challenge, as if Mel is going to win Immunity.” Zoe explained. “D’looa and I both agree that he needs to relax. If he doesn’t loosen up, he could have a nervous breakdown, and I’m sure he wouldn’t want something like that.”

“We’ve got treemail, people.” Elias called out, coming over with a letter.

As the others gathered around him, Sandy was instantly in Elias’ face. “What’s it say?! What’s it say?!” She asked.

Elias promptly shoved Sandy away and started reading. “It says ‘How much can you lift’?” He replied.

“See? It’s a physical challenge.” Zoe told Jonathan. “We all know Mel can’t win those.”

“I’m not taking any chances.” Jonathan shook his head.

(Immunity Challenge)

The five contestants from camp walked onto the beach and saw their tribe mat sitting just off the shoreline. They walked over to it and stepped on, awaiting instructions.

“Before we start, let’s bring in Mel and Marty, whom have just returned from their trip to the tropical part of the island.” SSBFreak explained.

Mel and Marty came walking into view, Mel waving and giving a vocal greeting before the two stepped onto the mat to wait with the others.

“Welcome to your next Immunity Challenge, La’nooba. Here, we will test your strength and endurance all at once.” SSBFreak explained, guesturing to seven piles of weights sitting aside. “The point of this challenge is to see how many of those weights you can carry across to those marked areas within the two-minute time limit I give you. You can carry as many weights as you like at once, but remember that they each weigh fifty pounds and carrying too many at once will get to be extremely tiring.” SSBFreak reminded. “Whoever has the most weights deposited in their marked area at the end of the twenty yard run will win Immunity at tonight’s Tribal Council. Now if you’re all ready, let’s get you lined up.”

The seven contestants were lined up at the marked areas, looking at the piles of weights several yards away. People like Jonathan, D’looa and Sandy looked determined while Mel and Marty looked terrified.

“Okay, for Immunity, survivors ready…Go!” SSBFreak shouted.

The seven contestants were off like a shot, racing down the beach and straight towards the piles of weights. Jonathan took an early lead while the kids brought up the rear and the brown-haired man was at the weights well before anyone else.

“I’ll start with two weights.” Jonathan said. “I can carry a hundred pounds easy.”

Scooping up two of the fifty-pound weights, Jonathan raced back towards his marked area as everyone else arrived at the weights. D’looa and Sandy picked up two weights while everyone else settled for one.

Jonathan raced back to the marked areas and quickly arrived at his own. Placing the two weights down, he didn’t waste any time in turning around and running back to the weights.

Marty moaned as he carried his single weight. “There’s no way we’ll be able to beat him!” He said. “He’s carrying two weights easily and we’re struggling with one!”

“Keep trying, Marty!” Mel said. “We can’t give up now!”

Elias grunted as he put his single weight down on his marked area. “Of all the times for my not focusing on my upper-body strength to come back to haunt me.” He muttered as he turned to go pick up some more weights.

D’looa and Sandy had both delivered their two weights by now and were racing back to the weights, only to see Jonathan coming back with two more. Jonathan wordlessly passed the two girls as they arrived at the weights again.

“Let’s stick with two for now.” D’looa said to herself. “I’ll try three when I get used to it.”

D’looa was faster to get away from the weights than Sandy was due to Sandy taking a little longer to gather her weights. D’looa’s determination helped her gain a little more ground on the crazy woman as she raced towards the marked area again.

Zoe reached the weights, but found herself unable to carry more than one weight. The skunk girl picked up the weight just in time for Jonathan to arrive at the weights again, this time gathering up three weights.

“Jonathan, be careful!” Zoe said. “Pace yourself!”

Elias picked up another single weight and struggled to keep up with the others, only for D’looa and Sandy to gain a lot of ground on him. “How are those two stronger than I am?” He asked. “They don’t look that much stronger than me.”

The contestants continued to shuttle weights across the beach for a bit. Jonathan was in the lead due to him starting to carry three weights, and second place was currently D’looa’s position.

Marty and Mel each picked up a single weight and trailed behind everyone else as they struggled to keep up with them. Needless to say, neither of the two were liking their chances.

“This isn’t good, Mel!” Marty said. “I think we’re last!”

“Anything can happen, Marty! Can you carry more weights?” Mel asked.

“If I carried a hundred pounds, I’d be carrying almost my full body weight!” Marty insisted. “I don’t think so!”

Sandy smirked as she tried to keep up with D’looa. “So the freaky alien girl thinks she’s in better shape than me, does she?” She asked as she carried two weights to the marked areas. “Well…She probably is.”

Jonathan continued to carry three weights across to the marked area and was building a fair lead. He wasn’t even stopping after dropping off the weights and instead just ran right back for more.

“Jonathan, please pace yourself!” Zoe pleaded. Jonathan seemed to ignore her.

“Okay, everyone! We’re down to the one-minute mark!” SSBFreak called out. “The challenge is almost over!”

This seemed to be enough motivation for D’looa to pick up the pace. The Twi’lek girl quickly dropped off the two weights she had been carrying and took a couple of breaths before turning around and racing back to the weights. Sandy arrived at her marked area a few seconds later and dropped off her weights before turning around and continuing the chase.

Jonathan arrived at the weights again and picked up his usual three weights. However, this time he reached for a fourth one and started to carry two-hundred pounds of weights to the marked areas.

Zoe had just dropped off her single weight when she turned and saw Jonathan hobbling over with four weights. She didn’t like what she saw. “Jonathan, for the love of barrel rolls! PACE YOURSELF!!” She shrieked.

Jonathan tried to block out his friend’s requests, but only a few feet after Zoe had given him the request, Jonathan’s arm gave out and all of the weights he was carrying crashed to the ground. Jonathan shouted in pain as he collapsed, clutching his right arm.

“Jonathan!” Zoe shouted as she rushed over to her friend’s side.

D’looa saw Jonathan collapse and was about to rush over herself when Zoe shook her head. “Keep going!” She ordered. D’looa sighed as she continued to carry two weights.

“Jonathan collapsed!” Marty said.

“That can give us a fighting chance, then!” Mel nodded. “Come on! Pick up the pace!”

Because Zoe was trying to tend to Jonathan, there were only five people left running back and forth. D’looa had seen what happened to Jonathan and didn’t dare attempt to carry four weights. She managed to lift three weights and that was as far as she would go. D’looa hauled three weights back to the marked areas as Sandy arrived at the weights again.

Everyone knew that they were running out of time, but that didn’t stop anyone from trying their hardest to beat everyone else. D’looa and Sandy were still fighting for the lead as Elias was beginning to lose serious ground on them and was starting to fall behind.

Elias knew he had no chance of winning, but stayed in the game because he refused to back out of a challenge like this. D’looa and Sandy were both way ahead of him and Elias knew it.

Marty and Mel, on the other hand, were slowing down. Their stacks of weights in their marked areas were way less than the others, so they figured that it’d be best to just conserve energy and not bother.

The contest seemed like it was just between D’looa and Sandy as the two women ran back and forth, carrying weights with hopes of winning the challenge. They would have kept going as well if SSBFreak had not stepped in.

“And…That’s it! Time’s up!” SSBFreak said. “Everyone stop! We need to count the weights!”

Everyone waited impatiently off to the side, Jonathan clutching his right arm. It didn’t take long to count, because SSBFreak came back moments later.

“The winner, by five weights, is…D’looa!” SSBFreak announced. “D’looa wins Immunity!”

D’looa breathed a sigh of relief, then cheered loudly. Mel and Marty looked at each other worriedly.

(Later…)

“Congratulations on winning Immunity, D’looa.” SSBFreak said as he handed D’looa the Immunity Necklace. “You’re safe for another night and have a one-in-six chance at winning the game.”

“Amazing. I never thought I’d come this far.” D’looa nodded.

SSBFreak turned to the remaining six contestants. “D’looa is safe tonight, but I’ll be seeing everyone at Tribal Council, where you’ll be voting someone off.” He explained. “You have the rest of the afternoon to decide your plans, but for now you can head back to camp.”

(La’nooba Tribe)

“I can’t believe it. I was so determined to win that challenge that I carried way more than I should have.” Jonathan moaned, still holding his right arm. “I REALLY pulled a muscle in my arm, here. It’s not broken, but it just really hurts and I can’t move it. I’m not sure if I can continue the game like this…”

“Does it still hurt, Jonathan?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah. I still can’t believe I did that to myself.” Jonathan sighed.

“I was TELLING you to pace yourself.” Zoe insisted. “Now look at what happened!”

“So now what?” D’looa asked. “We weren’t expecting this to happen. Does your arm REALLY hurt, Jonathan?”

“It hurts enough that I can hardly move it.” Jonatha shook his head. “I’m not sure if I should even continue in the game now.”

“I was SO afraid something like this would happen. Jonathan was pushing his limits so much in that challenge and now he’s really hurt his arm because of it.” Zoe said. “We may be forced to vote him out so he can can medical attention, because not even he thinks he can continue on with that injury.”

Meanwhile, Mel and Marty were standing aside, watching Jonathan holding his arm.

“Looks like he really hurt himself on that task.” Mel noted.

“I definitely know how that feels.” Marty replied. “I threw out my back on day 3.”

“But there isn’t anyone left in the game that can help Jonathan, though.” Mel said. “I think I heard him say that he didn’t think he could continue.”

“I feel guilty saying this, but this may have just been the twist we needed.” Marty said.

“And I feel just as guilty because I actually agree with you.”

“It sucks that Jonathan really hurt himself, but if he’s too hurt to continue, then that means Marty and I have a free pass through tonight’s Tribal Council.” Mel said. “I know it’s not the best condition to vote someone out, but Jonathan needs to get his arm looked at before it gets any worse.”

(Tribal Council)

The seven finalists walked into Tribal Council, carrying lit torches. Jonathan was carrying his torch with his uninjured arm, his injured arm was hanging down by his side. The finalists walked over to their seats and sat down to wait for council to start.

“Before we start, let’s bring in the members of the jury.” SSBFreak explained. “Angie, Barney, Kida, Reginald and Crane, whom was voted off at the last Tribal Council.”

The members of the jury entered the hut, with the white-haired rudie bringing up the rear. He was wearing a green tee-shirt, futuristic shades and had a few strands of black hair dyed in with the white hair had had previously. The five members of the jury reached the benches and sat down.

“They won’t address you and you are not to address them.” SSBFreak explained. “They’re just here to watch.” He looked at D’looa to start off the questions. “D’looa, you won Immunity for the first time. Did you need it tonight?”

“No. I can’t say that I was in real danger tonight.” D’looa shook her head. “I’m not strong enough to be considered a threat and I’ve been more of a swing vote as of late than anything.”

“Are you certain of that?”

“I haven’t been on a real alliance since Kida got blindsided.” D’looa shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I’m a swing vote.”

Reginald stroked his chin in thought. “Is she serious? I’ve been curious as to how she’s lasted this long.” He noted.

“We’ll find out eventually.” Barney shrugged.

“Mel, it seems pretty obvious to everyone that you and Crane were on an alliance with Marty.” SSBFreak explained. “You think that’s why Crane got eliminated?”

“Why else would they have kicked Crane off before some of the bigger physical threats?” Mel asked. “That’s the only thing I can think of, and even still I’m baffled as to how someone figured the whole thing out.”

“That’s what I’d like to know as well.” Crane mused to himself.

“You guys were keeping the alliance a secret for how long?”

“Before the Tribal Council where Kida was eliminated, I know that much.” Mel explained. “I don’t know when it was we were found out, but it couldn’t have been that long ago.”

“Jonathan, you seem to be in pain. What exactly happened?”

“I got pushed my limits just a little too much at the Immunity Challenge and I seriously pulled a muscle in my arm.” Jonathan replied. “I can hardly move it without it hurting.”

“So do you think you can continue playing the game?”

Jonathan took a breath. “No. I don’t think I’d be able to continue. If I put any more strain on my arm, I’d probably just make it worse. I should probably get my arm looked at.” He explained. “So, as a personal request, I’d like everyone to vote for me to vote me out of the game.”

“You don’t want to just quit right now?”

“I came into this game to play until the end. Not to just back out.” Jonathan shook his head. “I’d rather be voted out than quit.”

“I like his style at least.” Kida said with a grin.

SSBFreak shrugged. “Okay. Before we get to the voting, I have to ask.” He said. “D’looa, are you giving up Immunity tonight?”

D’looa sighed. “No.” She replied.

“D’looa is safe and can’t be voted out. It’s time to vote.” SSBFreak explained. “Zoe, you’re up.”

Zoe sadly left the hut and went over to the voting table. She wrote down a name and placed it into the urn.

Elias wrote down a name and showed it to the camera. “Only because you asked. Sorry it ended this way.” He said, having voted for Jonathan.

Sandy approached the table and wrote down a name. “I know how you feel, Jonathan. That happened to me once. Not fun.” She shook her head.

Jonathan wrote down a name with hid uninjured hand. “I need to vote for someone.” He said, having voted for Mel. “I still say you’re too big of a threat.”

Mel silently walked up to the table and sadly wrote a name down. She placed the ballot into the urn and went back the way she came.

D’looa shook her head and wrote a name down. “Zoe DID warn you, Jonathan.” She said, placing the ballot into the urn.

Marty wrote down a name and showed it. “Sorry to say this, but your injury probably saved mel and I.” He said, having voted for Jonathan.

Once everyone had voted, SSBFreak fetched the urn and returned with it after a short while. “Once I read the names, the person with the most votes will be asked to bring forward their torch and leave Tribal Council immediately.” He explained. “It’s time to read the votes.”

“First vote; Jonathan.” No one even blinked.

“Mel. That’s one for Jonathan and one for Mel.” Even with this, Mel looked unfazed, and simply sighed.

“Jonathan.” Again, no one flinched.

“Jonathan.” On the jury, Reginald rolled his eyes, muttering a ‘Get on with it’.

“Jonathan.” Jonathan just wanted Tribal Council to be over now.

“Jonathan. Last vote, sixth member of the jury and twelfth person voted out of Survivor: Central Hub…”

“…Jonathan. You need to bring me your torch.” SSBFreak finished.

“Get them good, Zoe.” Jonathan said as he stood up, grabbed his torch and walked over to the host.

“Jonathan, the tribe has spoken.” SSBFreak explained as he extinguished Jonathan’s torch. “It’s time for you to go.”

“Thanks.” Jonathan replied as he walked out of the hut, still clutching his injured arm.

Once Jonathan was gone, SSBFreak turned to the remaining contestants. “Tonight’s Tribal Council shows that anything can happen and the strongest of players can be forced to leave the game.” SSBFreak explained. “There are six of you left. We’re approaching the finale fast and things are really getting down to the wire. Keep in mind that anyone can win at this point in the game. You can all head back to camp.”

The six remaining finalists stood up, gathered their torches and left Tribal Council, Zoe bringing up the rear. She just couldn’t believe what had just happened, even if she knew it would happen as soon as Jonathan injured himself. She had relied on Jonathan for the majority of the game, and now that he was gone, Zoe was pretty much on her own.

“I was playing an amazing game. I bet I even had the game in the bag. However, I had been so focused on winning that I just lost focus of my judgement, and it ended up costing me the game.” Jonatha sighed. “All I can do now is hope that Zoe and D’looa are able to make it to the end. I don’t know if I’d vote for anyone else…”

Voting History:
Jonathan – D’looa, Zoe, Marty, Mel, Sandy and Elias
Mel – Jonathan