Survivor Tale #14

Monday morning the game master took us all to the beach again, then she busied herself with tying some rope to a bunch of trees, winding it around their trunks. This was done in preperation for the next challenge, which worked like this:
The players didn't do this all at the same time, but one after another: They had to "run the rope", follow it through and around the trees. This made it necessary to sometimes climb over or crouch under the rope, and you had to pay close attention not to get stuck, because each runner had to one of his arms attached to the rope with some kind of snap hook. There was also a big wooden picnic table with "built-in" benches involved, under/through which everybody had to climb. The player who ran the course in the shortest time would win immunity.
I think Stephanie did it in 1 minute 18 seconds, J.T. went twice, because his hook broke, he was faster than that, Amber, too. Shambo was the only one to have the hook on her other arm, which gave her a disadvantage, and if I remember correctly she didn't make the 1:18. The fastest one was actually the tallest player, James, he did the course in something like 1 minute 2 seconds and therefore won immunity.
The following tribal council was quick and the result was not unexpected: Shambo had to go.

Back to the cottage, where the next challenge was almost already waiting for the remaining 4 players: It was about Holding Things.


They had to press the handles together to keep the wooden cubes in place, and after certain time intervals they picked up more and more cubes. Whoever lasted the longest, would win.

I think J.T. dropped his cubes first, and a while after that, Stephanie. Amber and James however kept sitting there, arms up, holding their cubes. Anybody who ever tried to hold out their arm in front of them knows how hard it is. Now add to that the weight of the cubes and the lateral force needed to keep them together to get an idea of the perseverance necessary.
Man, it took forever. 15 minutes, 30 minutes. Amber's arms muscles were trembling by now, but her face showed nothing but absolute determination to win this thing. James next to her didn't seemed troubled, though. It looked like a walk in the park for him.
Finally the cubes fell.
James had won another challenge.

Another vote, another one out, but this time it was more complicated:
When the game master counted the votes, it was Stephanie's turn to go. But out of her pocket she pulled the second immunity necklace, so votes for her didn't count. Lucky her. Unlucky Amber.

Three players left, next challenge: Balancing ashtrays on "prolongable" plastic sticks. This time more a dexterity-than-stamina-related game.

James won it.

He had now won 4 or 5 challenges in a row, thus preventing himself from getting voted out. Great accomplishment, and just the way to play this.
Because at this stage a vote didn't make sense (J.T. votes Stephanie, Stephanie votes J.T.), it was James' prerogative to pick the player to accompany him to the final round.
He chose J.T., so this was were the game ended for Stephanie.

Well, the weekend was almost over now, and we all had to catch our boat back to the mainland. It took about 2 hours to take the tents down, clean everything up, pack all the bags and gather all the garbage and transport everything to the wharf, where the boat was already waiting.
After loading everybody jumped aboard.

Only 1 thing remained: We had to determine the winner.
13 previously voted out players now had the chance to vote for their personal favourite, so the game master called everybody one by one to her and had them write down a name on a piece of paper.
So who would I vote for?
After thinking about this for a while I came to the conclusion that I now could either honor the work of a great bullshit artist - or let me put it differently: Wasn't it an awesome achievement to end up in the game's finale without even winning a single challenge? The fun and friendly short dude with the little belly succesfully managed to circumnavigate all dangers and outsmarted and outlasted so many of us. That was definitely worth voting for.
On the other hand there was James, who in the beginning of the game, during the first few challenges, stayed under the radar; still he was always a force to be reckoned with. He chose to play his hand well and consequently started winning challenges only when it became important to do so. This patience and physical power couldn't go unvoted for, could it?

So when it was my turn, I wrote: James.

When everybody had voted, the game-master sat down in the middle and read the names to us.
The great counting began.

1 for James.
1 for J.T..

Another for James.
Another for J.T..

J.T. again.
And James.

James. He had 4 now.
Number 4 for J.T.!

And another for J.T.!
The score was now 5:4 for J.T., and 4 votes left.

Next vote: the equalizer for James.

5:5.

And James again. 6:5.

2 votes to go.
Was the next vote the decider?

The game-master slowly unfolded the piece of paper, looked at it for a moment, then looked at us and said: The winner of this year's Survivor is... James!

His trophy: A beautifully carved wooden immunity idol.
Everybody shook hands with J.T., and everybody congratulated the winner.

And then the boat reached the mainland and docked. The weekend was over.

James won the game.

I also liked his beard.