Mousey is dead tired!
Shane Keane's manager had called the show a few times, asking them to pause the live stream so Shane could deal with the blow‑up, but the timing of the leak was painfully awkward.
This episode had been advertised to end at 6:00 PM. The exposé broke at 2:00 PM.
Shane's mess was still in the middle of a public feud stage—the other party, Liam Reed, hadn't even filed an official police report—so Citrus TV figured it could hold out for four hours.
More importantly, because the show had pissed off Julian North and Ollie Blake, neither of them were going to pull any stunts. That kept the ratings low. If Shane's stock was ruined anyway, the easiest thing to do was squeeze whatever value was left out of him while they had him.
What kind of people run these shows? Whatever works. They'd threatened the agency with the huge penalty written in the contract, argued that the company couldn't manage the PR fallout, and decided not to waste that money on a throwaway talent. That's why, against all odds, the live stream was still running.
5:00 PM.
The point gap between the two teams hadn't budged.
The farther they looked the fewer markers they could find, and Julian's team finally stopped to rest.
Jade Hayes was treated like royalty for her efforts—an adoring veteran actor twisted a water bottle cap off for her, a music elder offered a sandwich.
If her little cat followers could see her now, she'd be so proud.
(0~0)
"Did Ollie's side give up?" Julian mused. "They've been inactive forever."
He felt like something was off.
Even if the production team wanted to provoke the sides and drive hype, they wouldn't make most of the markers so insanely difficult to reach. It didn't make sense.
If not for Jade—a cat with a natural knack for climbing—they'd have only managed to scoop up a few low‑score markers hidden in the underbrush. Julian had a hunch that Ollie's side wasn't just unlucky—they were hiding a trick up their sleeve. If one team had two little monsters among their four guests, that explained how they got those high tree markers. But how would the showdown actually be decided if both sides were struggling to get anything? The producers couldn't have known in advance there'd be two "cheaters."
Knowing Citrus TV, they'd make sure to declare a winner somehow. It kept the fans fighting, which was the whole point.
Julian paused and caught sight of a weird detail.
Yesterday the host had only said that scoring would stop at 6:00 PM. The host never said the competition itself would end at 6:00 PM.
Julian had watched some earlier clips before coming on the show; this production loved wordplay. If something wasn't spelled out, it usually meant a trap.
What if there was another round after the score cut‑off—some tie‑breaker where the guests would still be measured? That could be the deciding factor. They would have planned for the worst: if the marker hunts were too hard and neither team scored, how would they determine a winner?
"Jade, how's your sense of direction?" Julian stood up, interrupting the rest break. He thought he'd spotted the trap.
Jade was a cat, and even if she weren't one, most fey had pretty good directional instinct. They were only on the edge of the forest—if they plunged into the woods, Jade could still find their way out.
"Not bad. Why, Julian? Where are you thinking?" Jade panted, ready to move.
"Do you know the way back to the cabins? Lead us. I've got a hunch—might be nothing—but since we're so far ahead on points, let's head back and see if we missed anything."
It was a solid plan. Nobody objected. Jade took point and they started walking toward the drop‑off point.
The live chat was confused at first, but once Julian's team began retracing their steps viewers finally connected the dots: the producers might have been playing a literal wording game.
Smart people in the live chat picked it up fast. Once Julian hinted and they started walking back, commenters guessed the production's trap.
[ViewerA: I rewatched the clip—host only said "scoring stops at 6 PM," not "the competition ends." This show loves word traps. Could distance from the starting point be the tiebreaker?]
[ViewerB: Wait—so Ollie's team might actually already be on their return trip! If they realized they couldn't get a bunch of markers on high trees, they'd start heading back early to win on distance. Genius or desperate?]
[ViewerC: OMG our little "illiterate" boy is actually clever??? I'm shook.]
[ViewerD: Can Ollie's fans stop talking to him like he's a baby? He's not a kid.]
[ViewerE: Hey now, don't diss Shane's credentials. He's a legit film grad—way more professional than your "illiterate" fave.]
[ViewerF: This production should release a map of the guests' locations. We have no idea where anyone is. Ollie's group has the early lead heading back, but how close are they to base?]
[ViewerG: Finding this trap makes the episode feel like a blind box. Julian's squad has more points, but will that actually matter?]
On the live stream, Ollie's team looked like they'd been taking a leisurely walk the whole time—chatting, relaxed. They never mentioned the trap.
Julian's group, though, jumped on the idea. It made perfect sense, but it was a little late—after forty‑eight hours of sleep deprivation their pace wasn't great. Shane was hurt and physically drained from losing his aura, which slowed them down further.
Still, as minutes ticked, Julian's team began picking up speed. In the final moments they went from walking to full‑on running.
It was suddenly thrilling, even if no one could say exactly why.
[ViewerH: Jade can sprint like that?? Queen energy. MVP of the season.]
[ViewerI: Theo and Shane both look wrecked—poor guys. Theo's the artsy homebody, so sure. But Shane works out all the time—how is he collapsing?]
[ViewerJ: Julian just recovered from a major illness and he's running circles around them. Hilarious.]
[ViewerK: Jade looks like every cell in her body is firing on all cylinders. Come on, come on—countdown!]
At the exact second the clock hit 6:00 PM, the tiny cameras clipped to the eight guests' chests beeped in a chain of "beep‑beep‑beep." The host's voice—wherever their little microphone was hidden—came through.
"Good evening, everyone! It's 6:00 PM Eastern. Our cloud system has tallied your locations; we'll send vehicles to pick you up shortly. Of course, return rides aren't free—pickup fees will be charged based on your distance from the guest cabins, at a rate of 2 points per mile."
"Since scoring has closed, please stay where you are until our staff arrives. Don't wander, or you might miss us."
The live chat exploded into laughter.
Of course—that was the trap Julian had guessed.
This was how the production would decide a winner if neither side had any markers: convert no scores into negative point penalties, and whichever team's negative penalty was smaller effectively had more points.
[ViewerL: Classic Citrus TV. They always wait until the end to drop the trap. I swear I've seen episodes where anything could trigger a penalty.]
[ViewerM: Not the producers—they're just covering their asses. Starline Entertainment probably demanded this so someone could still win. LOL.]
[ViewerN: Will they ever announce the result already? Julian ran so hard he should get a win at least once.]
[ViewerO: Let Julian have this one. He finally outsmarted someone.]
Jade stopped, panting. She was equal parts furious and amused—after two days of climbing trees and scrambling around, she'd almost been played for nothing.
As a cat fey, Jade could sense directions within at least a 50‑mile radius.
She estimated they were at least ten miles from the cabins. At 2 points per mile, their pickup penalty would be at least 20 points—already almost catching up to Ollie's team's total.
She could also sense where Ollie's group was. Ollie's team turned out to be less than six miles from the cabins. At that distance they'd owe just 12 points, putting them only one point behind Julian's team—dangerously close.
Citrus TV's two‑hour delay in publishing the score gap had lulled the leading team into complacency.
The leaders had assumed victory until the moment the trap was revealed. If they'd stayed put and waited for pickup, they could've watched the win slip away.
Thank goodness Julian was sharp. After all the chaos he still thought to consider a producer trap.
Ollie had probably realized the same thing early on—if nobody could reach the high markers, there'd be no way to rack up enough points by collection alone. So he'd pivoted to the return strategy.
Jade's ability was essentially a cheat advantage that also had side effects: because she could scale trees and get valuable markers, it made them first to collect, but it also meant the production might anticipate and counter them.
Once the host ordered everyone to hold position, Ollie's team had an excuse to stop trying. They picked a tidy spot and dug into their leftover supplies.
Maybe it was because Ollie kept snacking on sunflower seeds, but one of the later markers they opened had a bag of sunflower seeds inside. The audience suspected Citrus TV had slipped that in to match the live stream mood.
The live chat teetered between roast and awe as people waited for the pickup—and the final tally.
(Author notes omitted)
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