Episode 1
Fire and Water
An establishing shot goes over a vast forest, the trees looking like a near-endless sea of green with the only exceptions being a large cliff in the distance, a lake in the center and an empty road that cut off the forest from the rest of the world. As the camera pans down a figure appears on the screen. A man with short brown hair that had some streaks of grey in it who was wearing a light blue button-up shirt and tan pants. The man looks at the camera and flashes a confident smile before speaking.
“Hello and welcome to Endurance Forest! The newest reality show hitting your screens. I am your host Vince Goldman. You may know me from my various roles on television, but this isn’t about me. I’m just here to make sure our contestants know what to do. You see over the next five weeks fourteen strangers are going to be living in these woods behind me in two teams. Every three days they will compete and the losing team will have to vote someone off their team, sending them home. Then after some time it’ll become everyone for themselves. The last person standing will be our champion and win the grand prize of one million dollars.” He walks over to a small box. About ten feet behind it lay two circular mats. One red and one blue. “In this box are fourteen ping-pong balls evenly split between red and blue. As the contestants arrive they will reach in and pull out one ball in order to see which team they’re on. Which they’ve already been informed of, so I thankfully don’t have to explain this fourteen more times. Speaking of which…”
A car pulled up and out stepped a tall and lanky African-American man with short black hair and a goatee. He had brown eyes that were sitting behind a pair of thick glasses. His choice of fashion consisted of a t-shirt featuring the Batman logo and cargo pants.
~~~
It cuts to this man now sitting in a booth. “So I’m just supposed to talk into the camera? Okay. Umm… hi… My name is Ben. When I’m not busy editing videos for much larger channels than my own, I’m a Youtuber who talks about… pretty much whatever I want. Mostly movies and whatever nerdy stuff I want to make a video about. Granted not every one of those is a success. Turns out not many people care about an obscure nineties cartoon about an even more obscure Argentinian comic. Then there’s my most popular one that’s… I guess it's more infamous than anything… turns out fans of a certain series aren’t fans of criticism… even if you start the video reinforcing that you’re a fan of the show, you just have some issues with it, but whatever. I’m here to get away from it all for a bit. You know, spend the next month not looking at a screen all day and meet some new people. And hey, if I end up winning the whole thing, I won’t complain.”
~~~
“Hello Ben.” Vince said with the no-so genuine smile of a gameshow host. “Welcome to the forest.”
“Hey Vince.” Ben said with a smile, “While I have a chance to talk, I just gotta say, I loved you as Doctor O’Conner on Emergency Procedure. Makes me kinda wish I thought to bring one of my season box sets for you to sign.”
Vince gave a laugh and said, “I appreciate it, but this isn’t a convention. So don’t treat it as one.” He then motioned to the box. Ben reached inside and pulled out a red ping-pong. “Looks like you’re the first member of the red team. Go stand on the red mat as we wait for everyone else.”
As Ben did so the next car arrived. Stepping out of it was a tall, muscular man with short brown hair and a bit of a hooked nose. He was dressed in a black t-shirt, jeans and a brown bomber jacket.
Seeing this man arrive right after himself caused a visual look of inadequacy to appear on Ben’s face.
~~~
The muscular man appears in the booth. “What’s up all? My name is Clarence and I’ve been a professional wrestler for the past seven years. Though I haven’t been signed to anywhere big. So sadly don’t expect to see me on WWE, AEW or TNA anything soon. I’ve just been on the indies. So you know, no big arenas. Mostly bingo halls and high school gyms. Which is a bit disappointing, but hey, maybe being on this show can change that. I mean The Miz was on The Real World and Luchasaurus was on Big Brother. If it worked for them it could work for me too… right?”
~~~
“Hey big guy, I’m sure everyone else who arrives from this point forward is going to hope that they’re on your team.” Vince said with a laugh.
“I certainly wouldn’t blame them.” Clarence said, flexing one of his arms while reaching into the box with his other one. After about a second he pulled out a blue ball.
“Looks like our biggest and smallest competitors are on opposite teams. Let’s hope that won’t be a sign of things to come. Might be boring if one team stomps the other all the way to merge.”
Clarence smirked at that and made his way to the blue mat as the next car arrived. Bursting out of it was a woman with long brown hair dressed in a lavender shirt and white pants. She had a small mole under her left eye. Eyes that were currently closed as a cocky smile was plastered on her face. “No more need to be in suspense as I, Daisy Bellum, am now here to grace you with my presence!” She then opened her eyes to see only the host and two other men in front of her. “What? Where is everyone else? I asked the driver to show up last so I can make my dramatic entrance.”
A mildly annoyed look appeared on Vince’s face. “As much as I appreciate theatrics, you had no say in that. Especially since we’re introducing everyone in alphabetical order anyways.”
“Ah… I see…” Daisy said awkwardly.
~~~
Daisy appears in the confessional booth now with a bubbly look on her face. “I am Daisy and I’m an actress. I’ve been in quite a few shows on broadway.” She then gritted her teeth, “Granted in mostly small roles or as an understudy where I’ve yet to get a chance to take over.” Her face then turned back to bubbly, “But let’s not worry about that. I’m here to not only get my name out there, but… well… living in New York is very expensive. That million would certainly help for a bit.”
~~~
With no hesitation, Daisy reaches into the box pulling out a red ball. She looks over at Ben, then over to Clarence and then back to Ben before muttering, “Well that’s disappointing.”, before joining Ben on the red mat.
Ben, hearing her, shot her a quick glare and the next car arrived. Stepping out of it was a man with shaggy dark brown hair that completely covered his eyes. He was dressed in a grey hoodie that looked about two sizes too big for him and equally baggy jeans. There was a wide smile on his face. “So this is it?” the man said in a deep voice that didn’t match his face, “This is going to be so cool!”
~~~
As the man is shown in the booth, he is staring directly into the camera. Even with his eyes covered, it almost looks like he’s trying to see the person watching the show on the other end of the television. In a serious tone he says. “My name is Edward Fitzgerald. I am a private investigator. Not that I’m going to allow any of the people here know that. To them I’ll just be “Ed”, some unemployed guy. My plan for this game is to act as dimwitted and off in my own world as possible. That combined with the slobbish appearance I’m currently adorning I think I can make these people not see me as a threat long enough to craft each and every one of their demises behind the scenes. I’m hoping I won’t ever need to reveal myself, but I’m going to have to see what curveballs are thrown my way.”
~~~
Ed runs up to the box and without a second thought pulls out a ball, this one being blue.
“Alright Ed. Go join Clarence there on the blue mat.” Vince said.
Ed nods. Walking over to the mat, nodding his head as if he was listening to music that only he could hear.
This was when the next car arrived, dropping off a middle aged woman with long and curly red hair. She was dressed in various shades of tan along with a wide brimmed hat. A smirk appeared on her freckle covered face as she looked right past Vince and all the other contestants and she starred right towards the woods. Looking as if she was perfectly at home here.
~~~
In the confessional, she tipped her hat, and in a voice that sounded as smooth as velvet introduced herself, “Hello. I’m Jillian and I’m a park ranger down in Arkansas. Been doing it for… I wanna say close to twenty years now. That experience I think is going to help me out here. If there’s a challenge for building a shelter, or identifying certain flora or fauna I’m confident that I’ll lead my team to victory. Maybe even be a bit of a mentor figure to them since. Looking at some of them, they may need it.”
~~~
“Ranger O’Hara.” Vince said with a smile.
“Doctor O’Conner.” Jillian responded with a smirk.
“Another person familiar with my work I see.” Vince said before motioning to the box for Jillain to reach into. The ball she pulled out was a red one.
As she made her way to the red mat, Daisy whispered to Ben, “Well hopefully she can balance out having to deal with the brickhouse on the blue team.”
Ben didn’t say anything in response as her previous comment made him feel like this still might have been a slight jab at him.
Right as Jillian joined her team the next car arrived and stepping out of it was a woman with long blond hair wearing a pink sundress and pink sunglasses with white frames. After she got out of the car, unlike everyone else who arrived before her who only had one bag or suitcase with them, they watched her pull out a second one, and then a third.
Once she collected all her bags the vehicle that had delivered her speed away.
“Ugh. Rude.” The woman scoffed. Before looking over at Vince. “I assume you’re the bellboy here. Take my bags please.”
“No, I’m Vince Goldman.”
“Who?”
Vince gave her an unimpressed look. “The host of the show.” He said bluntly.
“Oh… So who here is gonna take my bags?”
“You need to carry them yourself, little lady.”
“What?” She exclaimed loud enough to wake up any and all sleeping animals in a mile radius. “Are you insane? You expect me to carry all this to my room?”
Vince snorted at that before looking directly at the camera, “You hear that? She thinks they’re gonna have rooms.” He then turned his attention back to the new contestant and said, “You should have thought of that before bringing a walk-in closet’s worth of clothes into the forest.”
Hearing this the blonde woman walked right up to him, “What do you mean by that? The producer who scouted me for this show told me that it’d be like a vacation!”
“Yeah, camping is a vacation.” Vince said smugly.
The woman gritted her teeth and let out an annoyed growl.
~~~
The blonde woman appears in the confessional still looking just as angry. “This is bulls***! First my father cuts me off for “spending too much”, then I feel like I get a lucky break by meeting this producer who tells me I can win a million dollars by going on this show, telling me that it’d be nice and relaxing, only to find out it’s this dump. I should have known something was up when they asked to take my phone away.”
A muffled whisper comes from offscreen.
“What? Introduce myself?” She asked before rolling her eyes. “Ugh, fine. I’m Lissa Underwood. Heiress to the Underwood Hotel chain. At least that’s assuming that my father hasn’t completely lost his senses and cut me out of the will as well.”
~~~
Still gritting her teeth, Lissa reaches into the box and pulls out a blue ball.
“Well then, Miss Underwood please join your team.” Vince said with a smirk. Seemingly enjoying watching the rich girl struggle to carry all three of her bags at once over to the blue mat.
Clarence looked over to her and said, “You know, once we start heading to camp, I can help carry one of those.”
Lissa looked the muscular man up and down before flashing him a smile and a pair of half-lidded eyes. “Well now… I guess I’m lucky to have such a gentleman on my team.”
Clarence shrugged, “Eh, I’ve worked retail and I’ve helped ring crews set-up before. Carrying heavy things isn’t anything I’m not used to.”
Once Lissa and all her stuff was on the mat, the next car arrived. Sliding out of the car was a man in his late twenties. He was dressed in a blue plaid jacket with a black t-shirt underneath it. He had a thick pair of glasses and black hair that was clearly starting to recede as the man was clearly starting to develop a widow’s peak. He had some facial fuzz that made it clear that he had shaved his face a little while ago and it was starting to come back in. Though none of that was the first thing anybody noticed about this man. This man could have been completely naked and had an iguana resting on his head and those wouldn’t have been either of the first things people noticed. As this man had a very visible scar covering from the bottom of his right cheek going all the way up passed his right eyebrow, or at least where an eyebrow should have been.
The man could simply feel everyone here staring at his scar and just let out a depressed sign.
~~~
The scarred man sits down in the confessional booth. “My name is Lucas Jones and I’m a writer. Granted a self-published one, but a writer nonetheless. Sales wise it… hasn’t been going great. That’s the reason I even auditioned for this show to begin with. Hopefully I can win this and put the money towards advertising. If not… well I hope it’ll at least get my name out there. Though if you do look me up, I recommend that you don’t use Goodreads. That site lumps every author with the same name together as if they’re one person. I mean there’s gotta be a way to fix that, right?”
~~~
Lucas makes his way to the box, reaches in and mixes the balls up a bit before pulling out one that was red in color. “Red huh.” he mutters, “Alright then.” After handing the red ping pong ball over to Vince he makes his way over to his mat, only to trip over his own feet at the last second.
“Woah now!” Jillian exclaims as she jumps forward and catches Lucas before his face meets the ground.
Lucas looked up at the woman who saved him from a little more humiliation than he would have had, looking at the cute freckles on her face and said, “O-Oh… uhh… thank you.” As she helped push him up to his feet. “You’re pretty…” He said, there was a pause before he quickly added “Strong. You’re pretty strong. Being able to hold a grown man like me and all.”
“Eh, you’re not too heavy.” Jillian said with a wink as she noticed the pause he made after the word “pretty”.
“I’m Lucas by the way.” he said, sticking out his hand as his face turned a little red.
“Jillian.” The park ranger responded, shaking his hand.
As the two shook hands they next car arrived, revealing a college-aged girl with tan skin and a long braided ponytail. She was dressed in a white crop top tank top, a pair of short jean shorts, red sneakers with long white socks, and a red baseball cap. She was also adorning black lipstick and eyeshadow. Overall her look made it appear that she was the tomboy love interest in a TV show from the early 2000s.
“So this is it huh? Alright, this could be fun.” She said in a slightly gruff voice that had a hint of a southern accent to it.
~~~
The tomboy appears in the booth with a smirk on her face, “The name’s Mina. I’m a college student at… actually. I think I’d rather not say. Don’t wanna risk doxing myself on national TV. Though I will say that I’m studying law. Looking to be a lawyer someday. Though college is expensive and…” Her smirk drops, “I don’t wanna take out another loan from the bank and I don’t wanna ask my mother for more money… she’s already done so much for me… I was hoping that if I won this… she wouldn’t have to worry, but… this might be a bit harder than I thought with… a certain contestant here.”
~~~
“Hello Mina.” Vince said, flashing a smile.
“Hi… you.” Mina said awkwardly, “Look, I’m gonna be honest, while I can tell that you’re the host, I have no idea who you are.”
“Ow… hurts to know that the younger generation are unfamiliar with my work.” Vince said in a bit of a tongue and cheek manner.
“That’s not true!” Ben called, “I loved you as Lord Quazar in Gorg: Barbarian of the Stars! I mean in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way, but still!”
“Alright, no need to suck up to the host.” Daisy said with a roll of her eyes. Which only got a glare from Ben.
Vince cringed at the reminder of his role as the villain of a low-budget b-movie back when he was a younger man in the late nineties. He then just motioned for Mina to reach in the box and grab a ball. Doing so, she pulls out a blue one. “Alright, join your team.” he said motioning to the blue mat.
Mina walked over to the other three people standing on the blue mat where she got a friendly smile from Clarence which seeing this attractive and muscular man smile at her instinctively caused her cheeks to flare up a bit.
Lissa, noticing this, gave this new girl a side eye and she made a low grumble. Ed during this exchange was too busy watching a butterfly flap around to even notice that other people had joined his team. Or at least that’s what he wanted them to think.
The next person to be dropped off was a middle aged woman with tan skin and short grey hair. She was pretty short standing at a whopping five foot nothing and was wearing a white button-up shirt, a pair of jeans that clung to her body, a pair of black boots, black leather gloves and a long red scarf. There was one thing about this woman that almost every man there, and Lissa, noticed about her immediately this woman was extremely shapely. Despite her clear age she had a perfect hourglass figure that put every other woman here to shame. As this woman looked around her eyes stopped once she saw someone on the blue team, and her face lit up like a firework.
“Hello Nicole welcome to-” Vince began to say, only for the short and busty woman to drop her luggage, rush right past him and run right at Mina, grabbing her and hugging her tightly.
“Mina!” Nicole exclaimed, a thick southern accent in her voice, picking the taller, though much, much less endowed woman off of her feet.
Mina, who was still a bit distracted by Clarence, was surprised by this and it took about two seconds to realize who had just practically tackled her, “M-Mom?” she exclaimed in surprise. “W-What are you doing here?”
Nicole put her daughter down and said, “I could be asking you the same thing. When you told me that you weren’t able to visit me for the summer, I just assumed that you met a cute boy in college and that it worked out for me because I would be here. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
~~~
Nicole appears in the booth with a smile on her face, “Hello, my name is Nicole and I run a farm down in Texas that was established by my grandfather and passed down to my father and now I’m running it. So I spend most of my time outdoors already, so I think I can be a good teammate. Though if I’m overestimating my abilities… well I guess I can just use my charm on some of these young men. I mean hey, I’m well aware of what God has blessed me with and this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve used it to my advantage.” She let out a small giggle, “Though now that I’m here… as glad as I am to see my little girl here too… that might make things a bit difficult.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
~~~
“Seriously mom, why are you here? Is the farm okay? Do you need me to come back and help?” Mina asked in a serious tone, grabbing her mother’s shoulders as an extremely worried look covered her face.
Nicole put a reassuring hand on top of one of her daughter’s and said, “Nothing to worry about pumpkin. The farm’s doing just fine. I got Hector looking over it while I’m gone. Even if it was in trouble, the last thing I would want is for you to throw your future away. I just happened to go to a little shindig and ran into a man who happened to be a producer for this little show here. He thought I would be a great fit for it and I figured that it could be fun and hey, if I win, a million dollars would be really nice.”
“As touching as this reunion is.” Vince said, walking up to the two of them, “It is holding up the rest of the contestants. So can you please pick your team Nicole?”
“Can I pick this one? Please?” Nicole asked, fluttering her eyelashes and bringing her arms together so that they squish and accentuate her breasts.
A light blush appeared on the host’s face as he let out a cough and told her, “Sorry. For the sake of fairness, the teams are to be random. So please grab a ball and I guess hope you grab a blue one.”
“Alright, fine.” Nicole said as she trudged over to the box and reached inside. “Ah-ha!” she exclaimed as she pulled out a ball only to see that it wasn’t blue as she had hoped, but red.
“Oh, so it looks like we’ll be having mother and daughter competing against each other. This certainly could be interesting.” Vince said with a smile.
Nicole, more than a bit disappointed, slowly walked over to where she dropped her suitcase, picked it up and made her way to the red mat, standing next to Lucas who blushed even more due to being between two attractive older women since Jillain was standing on his other side.
At this point the next person who had arrived and stepped out of the car was a middle aged balding man with curly red hair and a bushy red beard that had a gray streak going down the middle. His face was just as red as his hair, looking like he had just gotten out of a screaming match. He had very wide shoulders and arms that were like tree trunks. Which looked a bit strange when compared to his thin waist that gave him a bit of a triangular body shape. He was dressed in a white tank top, a black leather vest and jeans. He looked at the rest of the cast with a bit of a grimace on his face.
“Damn, bro looks like if a dorito wished to become a human.” Ben muttered, getting a short out of Lucas, snapping the independent writer out of his mature-woman fueled trance.
“Mmm… so this the place? Mmm…” the man said in an almost growl-like mumble that was barely picked up by the camera crew’s microphones.
~~~
In the booth the man appeared looking straight at the camera. “The name’s Phineas. I usually work construction. Had a few jobs as a janitor. Currently out of work. Won’t have to worry about that once I win that million bucks. I think it will be easy considering most of the people I’m surrounded by here.”
~~~
“Welcome Phineas.” Vince said, flashing a smile, but getting no reaction out of this man who, without another word, just reached into the box and pulled out a blue ball.
“Damn.” Mina whispered to Clarence, “Why’d we have to get the dude who looks like a serial killer?”
“Come on, no need to judge someone based on looks.” Clarence whispered back, “He could be a nice guy.”
Right after he said that, Phineas stopped and stared right at Mina for three whole seconds on unbroken eye contact and continued on his way to the far end of the mat.
Noticing this and being a bit creeped out as well, Clarence muttered, “I’m… sure that he wouldn’t have been casted if the producers saw any red flags. Though I think I can handle him if I’m wrong.”
Mina and the listening Lissa both felt much safer with that statement.
The next person to be dropped off was a tall African-American woman with long and wavy brown hair. She was dressed in a grey pantsuit with a white undershirt. On her freckled face was a pair of sharp looking glasses. She gave a soft smile as she walked up to the host. “Hello Mister Goldman.”
“Hello Missus Jordan.” the host said back.
“I just want to say that your role as Ulysses Octavious on Court Date was a huge inspiration to me growing up.”
“Oh? Really?” Vince said, sounding flattered.
“Yes. Granted now that I’m a lawyer myself I see how inaccurate that show was a lot of the time, but that’s the fault of writers who clearly didn’t do their research. Not yours.”
“To be fair to them, I don’t think most people would want a one-hundred percent realistic courtroom drama.”
“Considering that’s my day-to-day. Fair enough.”
~~~
The woman appears in the confessional with a confident smile, “My name is Regina Jordan. I’m one of the founders of Kramer & Jordan Law Firm in Sevanna, Georgia. I’m here because my partner said that I needed a bit of a break and I happened to stumble upon some folks holding auditions for this show while I was at the mall with my niece. I don’t expect them to pick me, but I guess they needed a few normal people to balance out some of the weirdos I’m seeing in this roster. Also sometimes these shows have challenges that… aren’t super well thought out and… maybe if the producers need a good lawyer I can use this to slide them my résumé” She then chuckled to herself.
~~~
Regina reached into the box and pulled out a blue ping pong ball.
“Huh. The pattern of red, blue, red, blue has been broken.” Ben said, “I was starting to think that how these teams were set-up was rigged somehow.”
The other members of his team ignored him as they watched Regina join the blue team. Though as she did she noticed that Phineas was just staring at her, unblinking.
“Umm… can I help you?” She said confused, and slightly nervous.
Phineas mumbled something that nobody was able to decipher before turning his attention to the next car to arrive.
Stepping out of the car was an elderly man with thinning gray hair and glasses. He was dressed in a cheap black suit that looked like he grabbed it from a thrift store on the way here. He had round glasses and was sporting a golden chain necklace and a golden watch that was certainly a bootleg as the logo on it said “Rulax” instead of “Rolex”. He gave a confident grin, showing off that one of his canines was golden as well.
~~~
In the booth the man said back with his arms behind his head like he was nice and relaxed, “The name’s Simon. Simon English.” He said in a thick New Jersey accent. “I’m a door-to-door salesman. Selling folks whatever I have in stock. Granted my line of work is kinda a dying field nowadays since people can just go online and buy whatever they want. So I guess that’s why I’m here. With that million I can comfortably retire and not have to worry about adapting or trying to figure out how to deal with Amazon.” He said with a chuckle, “Though that may be tough seeing as I’m without a doubt the oldest person here, being sixty, but hopefully I can use that to my advantage. Have these youngsters not see me as a threat due to my age, only for it to come around and bite them in the ass.”
~~~
“Welcome Simon.” Vince said, “Please take a ball and join that team. Though I will note for everyone else that if you pull a blue one then that team will be full and the next two contestants will automatically join the other team.”
“I see.” Simon said, reaching in and pulling out a red ball.
“Well looks like that won’t be the case.”
Simon nodded and walked over to the red mat. Once he got there he quickly looked Nicole up and down, a slight smile appearing on his face as it was clear that he was happy with the team he was on.
Nicole didn’t seem to notice and even if she did, it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to men ogling her. If anything it was something she was counting on as something she could use in this competition.
The next car arrived and with it stepped an African-American woman with big brown eyes. She was dressed in sort of a half-punk half-military style with it consisting of a leather jacket with spiked studs around the collar, a loose fitting green t-shirt and a pair of camo pants. She had a nose ring in her left nostril and long dreadlocks that went past her shoulders. As she looked amongst the other contestants, she took a long drag of the cigarette between her fingers.
Vince took a few steps and muttered to her, “Umm… Miss Grey uhh… There's no tobacco allowed here. I was in your contract.”
“I know, this is just my last one before the show.” she said before dropping the butt on the ground and stomping it out, “Though that rule might make things a bit difficult.”
~~~
The woman is shown sitting in the confessional booth. “My name is Sue. My current job is that of a clerk at a grocery store, but I have farther ambitions than that. My goal is that I want to be a comic artist. I’m still workshopping ideas of what I want to make myself, but I’d be totally down if I got work for… really any comic company. Just so I can make money doing what I love. As for this game however, I’m not sure how I plan on playing it. I’ll probably just roll with the punches. Though hey, I think I’ll be quite the asset to my team outside of challenges. I’m quite the experienced hunter thanks to a lot of hunting trips with my step-dad. So unless there’s literally no wildlife around here, I think I’ll be able to make sure that my team doesn’t go hungry, which will hopefully make them want to keep me around.”
~~~
Sue and Vince walked to the box and Sue reached her arm inside. With only two balls left, it took a bit for her hand to find one of them. Eventually she firmly grasped one, pulling it out to see that it was blue.
“With that the seventh and final member of the blue team is Sue.” Vince said with a smile. “Miss Grey, go join the rest of your team.”
Sue nodded, but as she did she looked her team up and down. Getting mixed feelings from all of them. From feeling confidence from seeing strong looking men in Clarence and Phineas, to the different flavors of eye candy that were the other ladies of the team, to Ed who at a glance she couldn’t get a read on.
She stood next to Lissa and shot her a kind smile, Lissa, not wanting to be rude, gave her one as well.
Phineas during all this however gave Sue the same glare that he shot at Regina earlier.
Soon after the final car arrived to drop off the fourteenth contestant. Stepping out was a young and slightly chubby Korean-American man with thick glasses. He was wearing a black t-shirt that had an image on it that was so faded it was next to impossible to figure out what it originally was and a pair of grey cargo pants.
~~~
The young man appears in the confessional to make his introduction. “My name is Yong-Gi. I am nineteen years old and I’m a streamer where I mostly play fighting games. If this show was airing a year ago I’d say that I thought I was pretty good since I’ve won quite a few local tournaments that I’ve entered, but last year I entered EVO, the biggest fighting game tournament in the world and… I got totally destroyed. While it was a fun trip and I did still enjoy the convention… That was a humbling experience. Though I think it taught me to not be too confident. So with that and with my reaction time that I have from playing such a genre, I think I can make it far in this game.”
~~~
“Welcome Yong-Gi.” Vince said with a smile, “I’d tell you to reach into this box, but since you’re the last to arrive, there’s no point in doing that. Please go and join the others standing on the red mat.”
Yong-Gi nodded and did so standing next to Ben. “Nice Batman shirt.” He said.
“Oh thanks nice umm…” Ben said, trying to figure out what the image on Yong-Gi’s shirt was.
Realizing this, Yong-gi said, “It was a Danganronpa shirt. Being that of the logo of Hope’s Peak Academy, but yeah, I know it’s nothing, but speaks of white now.”
“Oh, Danganronpa. I know of that series, but I haven't played it myself though. No offence, but if the image is that faded, why not throw the shirt out?”
“Because it still functions as a shirt and if I threw it out I’d have to buy a new shirt to replace it.”
“You know what? Fair enough.”
Once their conversation died down, Vince turned towards both teams and said, “Alright everyone. I hope you’re happy with your teams. Red team, you will now be known as Team Fire. Blue Team, you are Team Water. We’re going to give you a day to get settled in and to get to know each other a bit. Tomorrow you’ll be faced with your first competition and we’ll see the first elimination.” He then grabbed two maps and threw one to each team. The maps being caught by Jillian and Regina respectively. “Here are the maps to your campsites where you will find a tent, a pot and a machete and that’s about it. Everything else, like food and water, you’re going to have to find on your own.”
“Seriously?” Lissa asked.
“Yes, seriously. And if I were you, princess, I’d stop complaining since I’m sure that won’t make you popular with your team. Though don’t fret too much since, teams that win challenges, won’t just be safe from elimination, but they will receive a reward that’ll make your experience slightly better.” That statement seemed to make everyone a little more motivated that they were already. Seeing this, Vince smiled and said, “Nice to see the energy. Alright everyone, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With that the teams began to leave, only stopping one Vince spoke up again, “Oh and one last thing everyone!” They all turned around and watched as the host pulled out a large golden coin, about twice the size of a silver dollar, from his pocket. On one side of the coin was the logo for the show and on the other was an image of an angel. “This is The Coin of Salvation. Somewhere hidden in this forest is another one just like it. The person who finds it will gain a great power in this game. Being able to use it after the votes have been read and saving themselves or, if they wish, somebody else from elimination. Nullifying any votes casted on that person that night and sending the person with the second most votes home instead.”
~~~
Ed is shown in the confessional booth with his fingers interlocked and staring directly into the camera. “I’m not shocked that there’s such an item in this game. Most shows like this have something like this. That being said, while I can’t discount the possibility of someone else finding it due to pure, dumb luck, I think I have the advantage when it comes to actively looking for it. I’m a detective. I’m used to looking for small details that most people would miss. As those details are what can separate a case from being solved or unsolved. Or in the case of this game, how long one survives here.” Then a cocky smirk appeared on his face, “As a bonus, if I ever get caught looking for it, or am accidentally gone for too long, I can just use the dumb guy persona I’m putting on to pretend that I got lost.”
~~~
The camera cuts to Team Fire walking through the woods, guided by Jillian who every now and again glanced back down at the map. “Alright. Looks like it’s another five hundred yards east and we’ll find our camp.”
“Sounds good ma’am.” Lucas said with a nod.
Jillian let out a slightly nervous giggle and said, “Please don’t call me ma’am. It reminds me of my age.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.” Lucas said, putting up and waving his hands defensively. “I meant it as a sign that I’m listening to you since I assume you're the one here who best knows what they're doing since, going off of how you're dressed, I’m guessing you're a park ranger… maybe a scoutmaster.”
Jillian, taking some pride in her position, smiled and said, “You were right with the first one.”
“Well that’s a bit disappointing.” Yong-Gi muttered.
“Why’s that?” Jillian asked with a raised eyebrow.
“If you were a scoutmaster, maybe you would have been able to score some cookies and sneak them in. I sure as hell could go for some thin mints.”
“Ooh, or Samoas. I love me some coconut.” Ben added.
“Oh hell yeah, those ones are bitching.” Yong-Gi exclaimed with a smile, making himself a bit hungry.
“Who knows.” Jillian said, “Maybe that will be one of the rewards we win.”
“I doubt it.” Daisy said with a roll of the eyes, “Or I sure hope to god that we get something better and more useful than some damn cookies.”
While the other five continued to talk about cookies, Simon looked over to Nicole who was walking by him and said, “Sorry, but something’s been bugging me. You look very familiar. Have we met before?”
Nicole looked over to the older gentleman walking beside her and said, “I don’t think so. If we have, I don't recognize you. Sorry.”
Simon let out a hum, “I would ask if we went to high school together, but unless you have aged extremely well, you look way too young for that to be possible. Not to mention that, going off your accent, you clearly ain’t from Jersey.”
“I’ve never even been to New Jersey.” Nicole said with a shrug, “Maybe you’ve met someone who looks like me? Don’t they say that everyone has a doppelganger out there?”
“Eh, maybe.” Simon said with a shrug.
~~~
A mildly nervous looking Nicole is shown sitting in the confessional booth. “I… certainly hope that’s the case… since… I have an idea of what he might recognize me from and… I rather not have that come to light… not here.”
~~~
The show cuts to Team Water arriving at their camp. Regina turns to the rest of the team and says, “Alright. Now that we’re here we should split up into groups. One to get firewood, the other to look for something to eat.”
“We just got done with all that walking and you want us to do more work?” Lissa whined.
“Do you want to go to bed cold and hungry? Besides, you have no room to complain considering that you made the big guy carry your unneeded extra bags.”
“Hey now. To be fair to her, I offered to do so.” Clarence said calmly, putting up his hand to try to diffuse the situation before it snowballed into a full blown argument.
Then Sue stepped up, “While I agree that we should get to work, Regina. I don’t see too much harm in some of us being able to take a short break. Besides…” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small pocket knife. “It’ll give me time to find a stick to sharpen into a spear.”
“You’re allowed to have that?” Clarence asked with a raised eyebrow.
“They didn’t take it off of me, so I assume it’s fine.” Sue said with a shrug. “If not, oh well. The worst thing they can do is confiscate it later.”
“Damn. You brought a knife with you?” Mina asked. “I wish I thought to do that.”
“Oh, you carry one too?” Sue asked, turning to the college student.
“My mom insisted that I should. Just in case I need to defend myself. Being away from home for college, she worries about me.”
“Sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders.”
Before Mina could respond, Lissa piped up. “Her being on the other team isn’t going to be a problem right?”
Sue, Regina, Phineas and even Ed looked confused at that question before their eyes fell on Mina.
“Wait? Your mom is here?” Ed asked.
“Yeah?” Lissa asked, baffled by the fact that he was asking Mina that, “Her mom hugged her and asked to be on our team. I mean the other three weren’t here yet so I understand them not knowing, but you were standing right there.”
“Oh… I guess I wasn’t paying attention.” Ed said, rubbing the back of his head. “So which one was she?”
“The only woman on Team Fire with the same skin tone as me.” Mina said with a light snicker.
“Oh! The short milf! Got it!”
“Please don’t call my mom that.” Mina said, slightly embarrassed.
“Oh… sorry.”
~~~
Regina is shown in the confessional with a calculating expression, “Ed seems… to not have too much going on upstairs. To the point that I suspect some sort of drug use. I hope that won’t make him a hindrance in challenges. If it doesn’t, he seems like he might be someone I can… easily convince to vote how I want. If he does suck at challenges… well at least that’s one less person on this team for me to worry about.”
~~~
“Though to answer your question Lissa… no. Even if she’s my mom, I’m not going to go easy on her and I expect her to not go easy on me. I’ve seen how competitive she can get during board game night. I know it’s going to be even more intense once a million dollars is on the line.”
“Well that second half is disappointing.” Lissa muttered. “I hoped she would make it easier for us.”
“Meh, I don’t think we need someone on the other team throwing for us to win.” Clarence said with a smile, “This team looks strong to me. I just know we’re going to dominate that challenge tomorrow!” He then flexed his muscles a bit. Causing slight blushes to appear on the faces of Lissa and Mina.
Seeing this and thinking that it could be something that could become a problem down the line, Regina decided to snap the rest out of it by clapping her hands and saying, “Alright people. I think we rested enough. Let’s get to work on our camp.”
“I still haven’t sharpened a stick yet. Or even gotten a stick.” Sue said.
Phineas grumbled, walked over to a nearby tree, reached up and snapped off one of its thinner branches with next to no effort. He handed it to Sue. “There you go. Stick.” he mumbled before walking off towards the woods.
“Were you going?” Regina shouted after him.
“Food… wood… whichever I find first.” he mumbled before disappearing in the foliage.
~~~
Sue is shown sitting in the confessional. “That Phineas guy is… weird and… kinda creepy at first glance, but I’ve met plenty of people like him back when I was working at my local sporting goods store. The quiet and reserved type. I’m sure he’s… just socially awkward. I at least hope so. If not… good thing I have a knife.”
~~~
The camera cuts to Team Fire sitting around a campfire as they all make proper introductions to each other with it showing the tail end of Lucas explaining what he does for a living.
“So yeah… due to most of the work I’ve done up to my most recent book has been that of a ghostwriter, if you have happened to have read anything I’ve written, it’s more than likely that my name wasn’t on it.” Lucas said, rubbing the back of his head.
“Really? Not even in the acknowledgements?” Yong-Gi asked.
“I mean… maybe? I haven’t checked since, well… who the hell actually reads the acknowledgements in a book?”
“Hmm… fair enough.” Yong-Gi said with a shrug and a nod.
That’s when Jillian piped up, “So what books have you ghostwritten for, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“Mostly non-fiction stuff, like children's books about specific animals. Like I’ve done one about penguins or one about prairie dogs for example. Though my biggest work is the Uncle Carl series. If any of you have heard about those books.”
“Wait, for real?” Ben asked, looking over to Lucas, “My girlfriend has told me about those books and recommended them to me. I haven’t gotten around to them since I don’t have much time to read, but seriously, those were written by you?”
“The second and third ones were me.” Lucas sheepishly admitted, “I was hired to take over due to the original author sadly passing away before the release of the first one.” There was a bit of sadness and guilt as Lucas said this, something that was picked up on by Simon.
“Friend of yours?” the older gentleman asked.
“Oh no, I never met the man, but… I heard quite a bit about him from… someone close to him… he really seemed to mean a lot to them.”
~~~
Simon is shown in the confessional booth with a mildly suspicious look on his face. “Something seems off with what the writer kid said. I might try to look into that. If I end up digging up something he might not want to be known, I could use that to have him in my pocket. Though that’s more of a backup plan.”
~~~
“I guess I’m next.” Daisy said standing up, “Hi, I’m Daisy, and I’m an actress. More specifically in the world of theater. I’m hoping being on this show will get my name out there and help me get roles on broadway… or off broadway would be fine too. I guess I just want to get work where I live.” She said with a chuckle.
“A theater actress, huh? Cool.” Lucas said with some nervousness in his voice.
~~~
The show then cuts to Team Water around their own fire as a wild boar cooks over it.
“Wow Sue. I can’t believe you managed to find a boar out here.” Clarence said with a smile, liking his lips as he clearly was looking forward to the pork.
Sue shrugged, “I also saw a deer, but I think I would need something more reliable than a knife and a sharpened stick to get that. Also, unless one of those rewards we can win a solar powered portable freezer or something, I think that would be too much meat for us to eat in time.”
Lissa let out a disgusted grunt as she ate a handful of the blueberries that Phineas found.
Sue caught this and raised an eyebrow, “What? Not a fan of venison?”
“I’m vegan.” Lissa said bluntly like it was obvious.
“I’m not shocked, though at the same time you did also seem like the kind of girl who would eat caviar for breakfast.” Mina said.
“Oh, I’ve done that.” Lissa said with a handwave, “Though why use that as an example. Caviar isn’t meat.”
“Yes it is. It’s fish eggs.” Phineas mumbled.
“What?” Lissa asked, with her eyes widened in shock.
~~~
The camera cuts to Vince Goldman standing in front of the forest, looking into the camera. "Our contestants have arrived and are now ruffing it out in the woods. I hope they enjoy the quiet of the first night because tomorrow the competition begins. Who will be the very first person sent packing on this show? Find out next time on Endurance Forest!”
