I hold the gun to Charlie's head, putting on the best crooked smile that I can muster. "Allow me to set the standards. As you all know, we are going to beat the Oregon Trail, and put rest to ten seasons of TTL." The first person to respond is Tim, who angrily punches the air in my direction. "By starting another ten seasons?! You can't kill someone and brush off their life just because he has nine more to lose!" He pleads, trying his best to gain some sympathy from me. All I do to respond is move my pointer finger closer to the trigger and push the gun into Charlie’s head. "If you’d promise not to take unreasonable action until we start, then I’ll explain my motives." As I finish the sentence, the others take a moment to consult one another, albeit after some hesitation. The group makes distance from me, yet I can still pick out tidbits of what their debate.
“…complete… onable!”
“…you’re just… the team!”
“…compromise… Justin.”
“You catch any of that?” I joke, stealing a glance
at the back of my prisoner’s head. “Whatever it may be, if they do comply, will
you keep your side of the bargain?" He says with no shakiness in his voice
nor his body. "We shall see." I respond, turning back to the
squadron, with Anna standing in the front. “We will refrain from any unnecessary
force,” she says, tightening her grip on her bow. “but any drastic action that
you take, will cause drastic action from us.” I tilt my head in a joking
manner. “Well, to start, I didn’t intend to take any drastic actions at all.”
As I finish my sentence, I take the gun off the back of Charlie’s head, taking
a few paces back before firing anyways, leading to gasps of horror and
confusion.
All I could do was laugh at their reactions, seeing
the tinge of hope in their eyes and minds before it got twisted into a deep,
dark despair. “Haha… it’s a toy gun!” I cackle. “You know, one with the whole
‘BANG!’ flag and everything! Hooo, you should’ve seen the look on your faces!”
Everyone in the area groans at my petty joke, with Tim’s own patience coming to
an end. “You wanna take this seriously now?! Cause I sure as heck am!” He says,
lunging for me with a quick sprint and two closed fists. However, Charlie gets
between us, extending his arms out to make a makeshift human barrier.
“Pssh, whatever. When I do get the green light though, I’m not letting anyone stop me.” He says, walking back to take his place with the rest of the group, Charlie following suit.
"First, let me state my intentions. We are having a revival of TTL!” I say with enthusiasm, only matched by the loud and discordant japes of disagreement with my audience.
“However!” I clarify, pushing my glasses up. “We will only be having one season, with the usual one gimmick, and one guest.” Charlie raises his hand and speaks after I finish my lines.
“I will be partaking in this season, and I intend to account for the survival of as many people as we can.” He says with confidence, putting a reassuring aura in the air.
“Great. It’ll be
just like Season 9, where we can all die together. Like every other season!” Tim whines, unpleased even with the crutch
of a guest that our group received.
“Next, we won’t be on a set that embodies the Oregon Trail this time around.” This statement catches a few eyes. “We will be traveling along the real Oregon Trail, complete with actual river fording and everything that can kill us.”
“W-wait!” Esther stammers. “A-are we going to be using-”
“Actual livestock, yes. We will each have our own separate wagons as well, and unlike past seasons, I will not force any contracts to be signed, as you will have free reign to do whatever you want with impunity this time around.” This statement garners widespread approval from the five, forcing me to raise my voice in an effort of keeping them quiet.
“However! This also includes cutting of health insurance, as it was part of our agreements made seven years ago in the initial contracts. So go ahead and do whatever, but I’m not liable from you getting yourself killed. In other words...”
“You die in the season, you die in
real life.”
“Way
to really milk the cliché value for as much as you could get, Justin.” Anna
says, already bored of my shenanigans. “What’s to stop us from leaving in the
first place, if you have no bonding contracts, then?" I raise my arms up to the heavens, praising the skies.
“Remember Announcer? He’s keeping tabs on everyone, so I will be the second to
know if anyone plans on abandoning ship.” Defeated for the time being, Anna
backs off and merges back with the group, who all similarly concede.
“Now then, shall we be off?"
With this, we were off. Supplies were already kept together in a warehouse beforehand thanks to Charlie and my planning, so we didn’t have to spend any unnecessary time in town. We would also leave in a wagon train, so if any harm befell us, there would be many nameless travelers and traders with us that could take the blow instead. Anyways, getting back to the main cast and crew, our route for this season, for those who know American geography, is from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon itself, where I had conveniently placed a finish line laced with balloons and party streamers to signify the end of the journey. All the necessary bases were covered by my planning beforehand, and while I may need to improvise a bit at times, all should be fine if everyone does their job. If everyone is on board with helping each other, then this journey should go swimmingly.
That Guy
“Alright, time to use this journey for my own selfish gain!”
“You don’t have to announce everything you think out loud, TG.” Justin says, clearly unhappy with me interrupting his usual monologues to himself or the audience. "Plus, ruining my fun is Tim's job, not yours."
“It’s an endearing character trait of mine! I can’t help it if the writing for my character is so bad!”
"Just like how you can’t seem to keep five
feet from me without shouting out shameless one-liners and empty confessions?"
Anna says, jumping off her wagon with hunting gear in hand. “I’m going on my
own for a bit. Don’t die immediately, like previous seasons.” She causally
says, obviously not putting any feeling behind her words. I feel a stupid grin
come onto my face, knowing that her hypocrisy was just a cheeky way of mocking
me. To put that much thought into secretly telling me to stay alive? Oooooh!
She does care about me!
“Alllllright, buster. Can you PLEASE not talk while I’m having a monologue?” Justin orders, before retracting his own statement. “Forget this, I’m moving to the front of the wagon train.”
Well, now that I’ve been left to my own devices, time to catch up with everyone around here. It’s been quite a while, and I wonder if anyone has really changed since our departure. I know for sure that I haven’t!
“Long time no see, TG. Wanna help me in killing Justin?”
I stand still, amazed at how Tim still hasn’t let his anger go from before. “You still holding him to his actions to Charlie earlier?” I ask, unsure of which side I should take. “Yeah. If anyone’s doing any killing around here, that’s going to be me, and Justin’s gonna be the first victim.” Well, Tim definitely hasn’t changed at all. “So, you really don’t care about Charlie’s safety?” I ask, as Tim shuffles around his own belongings for anything that could be used as a murder weapon. “Of course I care about him! While he actually takes care of the necessary business, I can slack off and do whatever I want to do, seeing how he’s always on top of things.” “Uh… sure… whatever floats your boat, Tim” I say, now completely convinced that I shouldn’t stick near Justin or Tim.
“Hey, you gonna help me out here or what?” Tim says, now brandishing a few knifes and a menacing glare. I immediately feel some sweat already form at the top of my head, and instantly realize that I can’t escape my situation without provoking Tim.
“TG. Are you helping? Or not?” He says, now testing the knives on various objects mindlessly.
“Well, not like I had to be anywhere else now.” I flatly say, not happy with my circumstances in the slightest. Tim doesn’t seem to pick up the sarcasm and instead substitutes it with joy. “Haha, old friend! Wouldn’t it be unfortunate if you did have to go somewhere now?”
Why does it have to be me…
Anna
The first week and following days following our start have been fairly productive, at least to our usual standards. Justin assigned out jobs to all of us, and by playing to each of our strengths, we have been churning out work. Esther has been on animal watch, not to mention that her routine checkups have been keeping us reassured and healthy. Tim would be on collection and distribution of resources, but because he got caught in a freak accident that left him with multiple stab wounds, he’ll be in Esther’s care for the time being. Esther may have said that it was an “accident”, but I’m 100% sure that foul play on Justin’s part was involved. That had to take over his job in the meantime of taking stock, and he’s not incompetent, at the very least. So far, we haven't run out of the essentials yet. Charlie would be on general guard cycles and checking in to see everyone doing their jobs, along with assisting if any problems arose. A waste of his administrative talents, but I’m not the alpha in this pack. Justin himself takes the reigns of the operations, obviously. Steering the wagon posse whenever needed and carefully watching over us like a hawk. Well, except when I go to do my hunting and foraging. He doesn’t leave the wagon train unless he deems it “absolutely necessary to take action", which make me question some of his actions.
Though we have had to deal with a myriad of his antics, Justin takes the cake for taking the cake this time around the block. He has been oddly passive in most of our affairs, only intervening if he has a “specific action or duty to perform”, as he puts it. He almost even shot me in the face with a LIVE GUN for the sake of “screwing with the RNG system.”
*BANG!*
The sound is deafening to my ears, as I instinctively
cover my ears and turn around to see my assailant. It was Justin, who still
held the gun up at attention. Sparks fly to the ground as small embers ignite
what little foliage they can to sustain their own life, until they eventually
burn out. I find myself enraptured by the process, but quickly come to my
senses, now focusing my full attention on the man who almost took my head off.
“What is the meaning of this?!” I angrily ask, not pleased in the slightest with the attempt on my life.
“Gotta mess with the system somehow, and the randomness factors are the easiest to manipulate.” He says, now putting the gun by his side. “Look, if you researched the system that governs our life for five years, you’d understand the reason why things work. All of this manipulation is for perfecting my plan.” He says with a scholarly air, taking his glasses off and cleaning them with his shirt. I dismiss the idea and go back to my usual routine.
Justin chalks up his abnormal behavior to his
massive 5-year plan, but knowing how well his past plans went for us in the
previous seasons, nobody would have any faith in him if he ordered them around
for the sake of his plans. However, nobody has died, save for Tim’s own
shenanigans, and making it almost two weeks without a death in the cast is…
remarkable for us, I must admit.
"Anna?" A small, pipsqueak voice says,
knocking me back into reality. I turn to my left to see Esther, visibly worn
out from caretaking. "Oh, it's you, Est. How's Tim doing?" I ask,
trying my best to play it off. Esther frowns at my response. "Reminiscing
again?" She sighs. "It's not good for your mental health to always
focus on the past." I slink down to the ground, having nothing to respond
with. "Sorry, Est. I can’t help it sometimes." She smiles back at my
honesty. "It's just one more time, Anna. We all have our reasons to be
here, and I’m sorry if my reasons are as selfish as yours." My face lights
up for a brief second. "Huh? I thought you joined to keep everyone in good
health.” I try to study Esther’s face, and she leans backwards, a luminescent blush
now lining her face. “Well, it’s honestly hard to explain in words… You should
understand where I’m coming from, considering your own feelings, right?” She
says, forcing me on the defensive. “I-I have no idea what you’re talking about,
Est! Just what are you suggesting?!” She giggles, reverting to her normal self,
patting me calmly on the shoulder. “Just be yourself, okay? There’s no reason
to put on a fake front, especially since this is a once in a lifetime
opportunity!”
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