Author: JustSkipIt
Rating: PG
Feedback: Please leave feedback on the Survivor - Ash Island thread on the Kitten Board.
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters nor do I own Survivor. And believe it or not, I also don't own any small islands. On the other hand, this island is fictional so let's say I own it. I'm making no money from this fiction and intend no copyright infringement.
Notes: Ok, this is really difficult to figure out how to format. Here's what I'm going to start out with: Exposition changes will be listed in bold.
Captions for the "confessional" shots will be shown in italics.

Two boats race toward different shores of a beautiful tropical island. Contestants are hanging from the sides of each. The boats slow down and stop a few hundred yards from shore. Most of the contestants jump into the water while the others throw backpacks, oars, and planks of wood to them. Once they are done, the remaining contestants join their teammates and all start swimming toward shore-dragging, pushing, and pulling their belongings with them.

The survivor theme song begins to play as the credits roll. Shots show a beautiful island, shores, trees, waterfalls, and wildlife. Then the contestants's pictures are superimposed on the island background with their names at the bottom of the screen:

A very fit young woman with dark hair, dragging a log toward the fire: Faith
An all-American looking blonde man, running down the beach: Riley
A middle-aged man talking pointedly: Richard
A blonde woman rinsing in the surf: Joyce
A young black woman tying her "buff" around her wrist: Kendra
A tall bald black man lashing two posts together as if building shelter: Robin
A mid-thirties blonde woman stirring a pot: Darla
A young blonde woman stoking a fire: Tara
A mid-thirties white man shaking a coconut tree: Wesley
A young woman scurrying under a low-rope: Amy
A middle-aged man doing pushups by the shelter: Mac
A young man hammering wood for a shelter: Xander
A blonde girl carrying a water bucket: Buffy
A short young man playing harmonica: Oz
Another young man stirring a pot of food: Andrew
A redheaded woman swimming in the surf: Willow

Akathla Team
The Akathla team swims to shore slowly but steadily. Some swim strongly and confidently. One can be seen barely making any progress as he dog paddles toward shore and struggles to keep his head above water. One by one the contestants reach the shore and drop to lie on the sand to rest for a few minutes as they wait for their teammates to join them. Eventually they all wait for the dog paddling man and another contestant swims out to meet him and help him to the shore.

Confessional Caption: Wesley - Researcher
"I know we're all here to compete for a million dollars but I couldn't just let him struggle out there. I mean we're a team. And maybe now everyone knows how I play this game."

After letting the short young man rest for a few minutes, a dark-haired girl stands up and starts moving inland. She reaches a small table and calls to the group. "Hey, come see what we got." The others come over. While inspecting the gifts which include a tray of fruit, some rice, an axe, a shovel, a cast-iron pot, and a machete, the contestants introduce themselves. The girl who found the gifts explains that she's Amy. The boy who could not swim was Oz. The others introduce themselves and they agree that starting to build the shelter is the most important task.

MFashnek Team:
Like the earlier Akathla team, the MFashnek team makes steady progress toward the shore. They have no particularly bad swimmers and three members of their team seem quite strong. After waiting on shore a few minutes they also get up to discover their housewarming bounty.

Confessional Caption: Robin - High School Principal
"It seems like a very athletic group of people we have. The waves were really moving but everyone did a good job getting to the shore and bringing our things up. I think we'll do well in the challenges."

While unpacking the items, each member of the team introduces him or herself. The oldest member of the team, Richard, speaks up first: "Well kids, I think we need to start by building some shelter and maybe some of people can go look for clean water or food?"

"I'm with Dick," Faith agrees with a smirk on her face. Most of the older members of the team grimace at her rudeness while the girl who introduced herself as Tara blushes, raises her hand and points toward the trees.

"I'll go with you," Kendra says, indicating that she will look for food with the blonde. The others begin discussing building the structure, given the available materials.

Akathla Team
As the focus shifts to the other camp, we see the Akathla team working to strip leaves off bamboo poles and lashing them together to build a square structure. "Ok," Xander instructs everyone, "Now we should find some fronds or leaves to use as a makeshift roof."

Everyone agrees except Wesley: "I don't think that will work. This region South of the Equator is known for the heaviness of the leaves on most plants. Those are unlikely to stay on the roof and when they become water-logged, they will invariably fall, resulting in whomever is inside the hut becoming saturated."

The others look at each other and roll their eyebrows before Amy, Buffy, Oz, Xander, Willow, and finally Andrew wordlessly approach some trees to begin to strip their leaves.

Confessional Caption - Buffy - College Student
"Right, Wes… Like everyone's just like right? I mean the leaves are too heavy? I'm not sure how this team will do with this guy on it."

Confessional Caption - Willow - Software Startup Owner
"Well, maybe he has a point about the weight of the leaves but really, they don't really become saturated and the weight may make them a better roof. I mean, we just need to use a 60/40 overlap pattern and they'll absorb the impact just fine."

MFashnek Team:
Long past nightfall Robin nods to the other players. "I think we could sleep and start again in the morning. What do you say the women get the shelter tonight?"

"That's a kind offer," Joyce agrees as she looks at the other women.

"T-t-thank you," Tara stutters before looking shyly away, handing the man a plantain, and entering the shelter.

As the women begin to settle on the sand Darla speaks. "So women and men? Is that how they want to play it?"

"I think they were just being noble," Joyce posited.

"Still," Faith said, "the numbers are in here."

"But I say, let's win all the challenges and not worry about it," Kendra suggested.

Akathla Team - Day 2
The next morning the sun is rising as people begin to stir at the camp. "That's more effort than I want to put in this early," Amy says to no one in particular as she points to the man who introduced himself as Colonel McNamara but who everyone calls Mac doing pushups on the sand.

"Oh, I think a good strong workout ethic is an excellent way to start the day," Wesley answers in a lyrical voice. "Ancient warriors frequently performed calisthenics while assuming their war gear."

"Really?" Xander asked.

Not recognizing the sarcasm in the younger man's voice, Wesley launches into further discussion of the war preparations of ancient armies.

Within minutes the group begins to work on their shelter and continue their search for food.

MFashnek Team - Day 2
Confessional Caption - Tara - Medical Receptionist/Artist
"I think the team is w-working well. Today we need to find more food and to be r-ready for the challenge."

Confessional Caption - Kendra - Interpreter
"The past few seasons they haven't given the players fire for days. If we could get fire on our own, that gives us drinking water and we would have a huge advantage in the challenge."

As the sun rises over the beach, we see everyone on the team make their way to the shoreline. All the players appreciate the beauty of the sunrise and dip their feet in the water or splash water on their faces. After a few minutes they all return to the shelter area and begin to eat the plantains the girls brought back the day before. A makeshift dining circle with an unlit firepit in the center is in front of the structure. "Today we work on fire?" Kendra suggests. Everyone agrees.

Akathla Team
At the Akathla team home it becomes apparent that they are also focusing on fire. We see groups searching for wood, kindling, food etc. Buffy, Willow, and Xander walk slowly together pulling what dry brush they can find and putting it in the pot. "Did you know that Babylonians gathered dry brush with their toes and fingers so that they could get twice as much?" Xander asks with obvious sarcasm.

"I thought that was the Pilgrims," Buffy retorts dryly.

"Oh come on," Willow joins in, "You mean you weren't hoping for hourly lectures about geology and war history when you signed up?" As she reaches for more dry brush the viewer can clearly see the leather necklace tied around her neck with three rainbow beads resting just at the base of her throat.

All three laugh heartily before their conversation turns more serious. "Mac could be a threat," Buffy suggests.

"Not if we bring in that guy Oz," Xander suggests.

"Four on four?" Willow asks skeptically, she shrugs her shoulders: "Sounds good to me."

Confessional Caption - Xander - Carpenter
"So I guess I have an alliance with these two girls: Buffy and Willow. That's cool but I just don't know how much I can trust them. And there are five guys on this team."

Both Teams
We see both teams as their members trade off attempting to use two sticks to rub together and make fire. Neither is having any luck although they seem to work well together.

MFashnek Team
Richard, Joyce, and Darla walk along the shore edge looking for kindling wood as Robin, Riley, and Faith work on the fire. "These young people are very strong," Richard says as if just thinking aloud.

"That could help us in the challenges," Joyce states.

"For a while," Darla chimes in. All three look at each other and nod before continuing their search.

The three people working on the fire give up for the time being, tossing down the tools they were working with. We see Tara watching interestedly. Faith picks the sticks back up and motions at Kendra to help her as Robin and Riley walk down to the shoreline. As the two girls begin rubbing the sticks together, Tara looks again to see who is watching and approaches them. "M-m-maybe we n-need a wind break," suggests dropping to her knees and cupping her hands around the sticks. The other girls shrug and concentrate on their mission as Tara closes her eyes as if silently praying. She doesn't see the first lick of flame catch the dry brush nor the next as Kendra blows it to keep it going. In fact, the blonde keeps her hands around the fire until she feels the heat on her hands and looks up to see Faith and Kendra smiling as they slowly build the fire. "This is a good team," Faith says as she motions at the other two girls.

"The strongest," Kendra agrees while Tara nods her head.

Akathla Team
Confessional Caption - Amy - Waitress
We can see that it is dark and everyone sits together staring into the empty fire pit. Amy is a bit off talking to the camera. "Ok, so we have no water which I expected but all we've eaten is the fruit the show left us and some other stuff someone found and I'm like getting really tired and hungry. I don't see why we can't start on the rice."

Shots show everyone sleeping uneasily inside or outside of the shelter.

MFashnek Team - The team members sit around the fire pit watching the flames and passing a dipper of water. "First challenge tomorrow," Riley announces.

"This is a strong team," Richard tells everyone, "I know we can do it." Everyone nods and becomes silent.

MFashnek Team - Day 3
Riley and Darla return from the tree-mail-box with a scroll. "We've got tree-mail!" Darla calls excitedly. She opens the scroll and reads:

"It's kind of a puzzle
But more than that too.
Quickness, planning, and balance
Or it's a dunking for you"

"Cool," Kendra and Faith agree.

Akathla Team - Day 3
"So," Andrew says as they all read the scroll, "I guess it will be a combination of a mental and physical challenge?"

"Well," Wesley immediately chimes in: "That much is quite apparent from the clue. I'd posit a multi-part obstacle course with a puzzle portion at the end. Perhaps we should determine which team members would be best at each portion of this endeavor?"

Immunity Challenge
Jeff Probst announces each team and it walks in to take its place on the mat. The competitors take their places and look closely at their competition.

"So," Jeff starts, "how are things at camp? Everyone have shelter?"

"We built our shelter first as the obvious first step and now are attempting to gain fire," Wesley offers.

"And how about the MFashneks?"

"We have both shelter and fire," Richard announces with obvious pride.

"You have fire?" Jeff repeats.

"That's right, J," Faith says cockily.

"Congratulations," Jeff tells the team as the Akathlas look on with some amount of astonishment. "Do you want to hear about today's challenge?"

Both teams have been looking at the area in front of them. Scattered in front of each team are 5 poles slightly smaller in diameter than a telephone pole. Each one has different colored bands painted on each end of the pole. They vary in length from about 5 feet to about 9 feet. Also on the beach are 10 small wooden stakes. Farther away, standing in the water are five triangular structures like 3-dimensional ladders. They vary in height and distribution. About 35 feet away from the shore are two colored platforms about 5X10 feet.

"Yeah!" they all yell in response to Jeff's question.

"Today's challenge is called ‘Build it, balance it, and run it," he starts. "Each team will use the poles in front of them to build a series of balance beams on top of the structures in the water. The structures are different distances apart and the poles can only work in one configuration. You can use the stakes to hold the poles in place. Once all poles are in place, all team members must make their way along the poles and jump to the platform. If a team member falls off completely, including the final jump, he or she must return to the shore as well as a team member who has already completed the challenge. If no one is on the platform at the time, just the team member returns. Once the structure is built, only one team member can be touching any pole at once. The first team to have all its members reach the platform wins." He walks over toward a thin wooden icon carved to look like a native but with elongated canines and holds it up. "You're playing for this!"

All the contestants stand toe to the line as Jeff yells, "Go!" Immediately the MFashnek team rushes to the poles, teaming up to hoist them onto their shoulders. Robin yells to Riley to help him with the longest pole while Kendra and Faith grab the next longest. Joyce and Tara grab the shortest pole and struggle down the beach with it as do Richard and Darla with their selection.

Meanwhile, before the Akathla team can begin running Willow shouts for them to stop. "Wait!" she yells. She looks at the poles one by one raising her view to the water after each one. Then she yells to her teammates: "It's red, blue, green, white, yellow!" She quickly directs the teammates so that they will place the correct poles in the correct order but so that their strengths are distributed. Although the MFashnek team is obviously stronger, the organization of the Akathla team allows them to place the final pole and stabilizing stake in place 10-15 seconds before their opponents.

Those who have been placing the final pole swim back toward the shore and join their teammates. Amy is the first to climb up to the first balance beam and begins walking steadily but slowly across the pole. As she steps up to the next pole, Andrew climbs onto the first pole.

Meanwhile the MFashneks complete their placement and Joyce is the first up onto a beam. Although shaky she begins across, followed by Darla and then Robin. Amy reaches the platform first for the Akathla team and Andrew joins her to begin cheering for his team. Willow reaches the platform just as Joyce becomes the first MFashnek on their platform. In the meanwhile, Robin warns his teammates that the poles are becoming slippery. This point is underscored as Xander and Richard fall from their beams into the water nearly simultaneously.

Robin who has just reached the platform dives into the water to return to the shore as does Willow. By the time they reach the shore to join Xander and Richard, Wesley climbs onto a pole as does Riley. While Riley moves steadily across his beam, followed by Richard, Wesley slips from his pole into the water, causing Buffy to have to return to shore. When Buffy slips on her second trip across the beams, the Akathla team's fate is sealed. Tara jumps to the platform and is caught and stabilized by Riley seconds before being joined by Robin. The MFashneks jump and cheer on their platform until they lose their balance and fall or jump into the water. Elated, they swim to the shore.

When the reach the shore, Jeff holds out the icon and waits to see who will take it. As no one else steps forward, Richard takes the immunity idol from the host. The dejected Akathla team watches their celebration. Just as they are about to walk away Jeff calls out to the winning team. "Oh one other thing," he yells.

They turn back to watch him and listen as he explains, "This is also a reward challenge. You can take whatever you can carry with you. You have 5 minutes to decide." The Akathla team leaves the beach even more dejected as the MFashneks again cheer and set about deciding what to take with them.

Akathla Team
Everyone gathers around the non-fire to sulk about their loss for a few minutes. "Well," Wesley speaks up, "we had rather a spot of bad luck today but I'm sure it will be better tomorrow. Anyone want to go with me to get some more food?"

Andrew and Mac volunteer to go with the man, leaving the others at the fire-pit. "The other team has fire?" Willow starts.

"Yeah," Buffy says, "I'd like to know how they did that."

"Tribal Council tonight," Xander starts.

"I'd say the most important thing is having a quieter camp," Amy leads suggestively.

"Ok," Oz agrees as the others nod their heads.

"They looked strong," Buffy observes. "And that Robin guy was really built."

"Lots of hotties," Xander agrees, "that Faith girl had some nice muscle tone."

"I like the shy ones myself," Willow shares.

"The blonde," Buffy guesses?

"What was her name?" Amy asked.

"Tara," Oz says.

"Yeah, her," Willow agrees.

Meanwhile we see Wesley pull close to Mac and Andrew. "Our team is not as strong as the other team."

"What do you suggest we do about that?" Mac asks.

"Weak link:" Wesley concludes. "Willow or Amy has to go."

"You get two more and I'm with you," Andrew agrees as does Mac.

MFashnek Team
The team relaxes around the fire, again passing the dipper of water. We can see that they managed to return with 3 of the 5 poles, all 10 stakes, and one of the triangle stands.

"What are we going to do with those?" Darla asks casually.

Robin looks around before answering: "I suggest we use them as the cornerstones of our structure. That will give it some strength and we can hang things from them."

"Good idea," Tara contributed, "tomorrow we c-can work on this area too."

Tribal Council

The Akathla team enters the tribal council slowly and takes a look around. It is a circular area surrounded by trees. In the center is a large fire pit and two benches are set up one behind the other on one side of the area. On the other side of the circle stands a waist-high post and behind it, eight lit torches.

"Please come forward and get your torch," Jeff tells the team members. They do and then take a seat on the benches, inserting the base of their torches in the holes in the deck behind the back bench. "So, how have your first three days on the island been?"

Everyone takes a moment before Wesley begins speaking: "I think we are coming along quite well as a team. It was disappointing to lose the challenge today but I think we are very strong."

"Buffy," Jeff directs his next question, "it seemed like your team had a lead for a short time but then you fell behind and lost. Why do you think that happened?"

"You know, our team worked really hard out there today. We did our best and just got beat. I know we'll do better in the next challenge," she answers.

"Willow," Jeff asks, "you seemed to really take charge out there today. What was that about?"

"I didn't really worry about seeming too bossy or anything," Willow responds, "I really like puzzles and it only took me a second to see where each piece needed to go. It saved a lot of time to not have to try each pole in each position and get it by trial and error."

"Andrew," Jeff next asked, "is that true? Did you think what Willow did was helpful?"

"That's the type of leadership we need in the challenges to be competitive against a team that's stronger than we are physically," the young man responds.

"Ok, let's vote," Jeff directs.

Willow is the first to vote and we don't see her vote. Next is Xander and we see him as he writes down "Wes" before addressing the camera: "Wes, old buddy, I don't need to know about ancient warriors or absorption rates of leaves South of the Equator." Next Amy, Oz, and Mac vote.

Like Xander, Buffy addresses the camera as she writes down Wesley's name. "It's going to be nice to have it quieter around the non-fire tonight."

Wesley follows her and writes down "Amy" before addressing the camera: "You seem like a very nice girl but this team needs to work toward strength to be competitive." Andrew follows Wesley.

Jeff gets the earthen-ware pot holding the votes and sets it on the pillar. "I'll now read the votes," he explains, "Once the votes have been tallied, the decision is final." He opens the first vote: "Wesley." No one seems surprised by the vote. Next he opens the vote for Amy. Wesley has a smug look on his face as he waits for the other votes for the girl. His smug look disappears as Jeff reads the remaining votes, each reading "Wesley."

"Bring me your torch," Jeff directs before snuffing the torch and announcing, "The tribe has spoken."

Still looking shocked, Wesley walks down the path away from the tribal council area. The others leave the area with their unlit torches.

Parting Words - Wesley
"Well I really enjoyed the game and I didn't see this coming. I just don't know that this team can compete against the strength of the MFashneks but I wish them luck."

Next week on Survivor

Voice-Over - "Alliances are formed."
Shot of Tara, Kendra, and Faith talking quietly.

Voice-Over - "But others may be threatened."
Joyce walking away from Darla.

Voice-Over - "And a Survivor secret is revealed."
Confessional - Caption - Joyce - Art Gallery Owner
"I think I worry more about her because I'm here and I know what it's like."

All next week on Survivor