UMD Stories

Appalachian Adventure Racing Camp
Story by canairs90s
Posted Wednesday     153 views
I wrote a bit of a longer story with WAM as the central theme. It's about 83,000 words so I think perhaps a bit long for what this forum will allow, but I experimentally pasted it below and it seems like it worked. Anyways, I should warn that you have to get fairly fair into it for any sex although the characters start getting messy quite quickly.

If you prefer it in a more conventional reading format that's available here: https://www.literotica.com/s/appalachian-adventure-racing-camp

If you would prefer to just read the culminating sex scene and skip all this other baloney you can get that here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WAMtext/comments/1o59bcn/appalachian_adventure_racing_camp_the_finale/


Cal admired the beautiful scenery with excitement as he cruised into the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Technically it would have been faster to drive up I-75 before cutting over, but the scenery was much better on the state highways he was driving on. It was a beautiful mid-May day with few clouds in the sky and seasonable temps. He had his windows down and imagined if he had a convertible this would be ideal weather to take the top down. He'd woken a bit earlier this morning than he typically did, around 7 AM, to make the drive up to Northeast Tennessee from his home in Chattanooga. The instructions from the camp had been to arrive by 3:00 PM, but he figured being slightly early was ok. If he was being honest with himself, some of the early wake up certainly had to do with his anticipation of the weekend to come; sleep had not come easy last night and he woke up excited to go.

Cal was 31, very single, not entirely by choice, and feeling a bit stuck in life. He liked his job, he liked his hobbies. He owned a nice home and was in a good financial position, but he felt like something was missing. The easy answer was he didn't have a significant other, but he felt it was a bit more complex than that. He lacked something that truly pushed his limits, something that got him out of his comfort zone.

He had stumbled across the Appalachian Adventure Racing Camp a few months ago while searching around for an event to break up the monotony of the weekend bike rides in his hometown in southeast Tennessee. The camp's promotional materials were quite limited, with a registration link and a basic website that he probably could have set up when he was in high school. However the reviews were glowing, the top rated one stuck in his mind: 'a combination of a sprint tri, a tough mudder, and the toughest escape room you've ever tried with some cool Amazing Race vibes mixed in - all spread over 48 hours...and the grand prize is pretty amazing.'

It certainly sounded like an interesting proposition, although once he started the registration process the $750 entry fee certainly gave him second thoughts. Although he was wavering on following through, the confirmation screen also included details on the prize for winning the weekend: A one week stay at a lakeside house (based on the pictures, mansion might actually have been a better description) with all food and drink included. The confirmation screen did warn that the maximum chance of success was 25%, but by his calculation that seemed worth it for the opportunity to win a week's luxury vacation. Plus, even if he didn't win, it was a chance to compete in what appeared to be an intense and fun competition - basically what he felt like he needed in his life.

Cal turned right off the rural highway he'd been following, following the maps app on his phone, onto a narrow two lane side road. He soon approached where the map indicated should be the address he'd entered - there was a small dirt road with no markings. He immediately felt apprehensive that he was in the wrong the spot and intruding, but 50 yards down the seemingly abandoned path he spotted a white woman and a black man seated at a card table with a laptop in front of them.

Cal approached the makeshift registration table slowly and greeted the pair cordially.

"Hi, nice to meet you Mr. Jefferson, welcome to Appalachian Adventure Racing!" called the woman. She was an attractive blonde, late 30s or early 40s, Cal guessed.

"How did you know who I am?" Cal asked in confusion.

"You're the only competitor from Hamilton County this weekend, so your license plate gave us a pretty strong clue," she replied with a smile. That made sense, Cal thought; Tennessee was one of the few states that put the county of the resident on their license plate.

"We promise, we're not that creepy, you can pull into the lot to your right and I'll take you down to the base camp," The lady said, still smiling.

"Thanks" replied Cal, feeling a little better that the camp owners seemed down to earth and relieved that he hadn't wandered into some random hunting lodge. He pulled his car into the lot alongside the other vehicles parked there.

The woman followed him and greeted him as he got out of his car, "Hi, I'm Laurie Jackson, co-owner of the camp along with my husband Pierre," she nodded at the guy still seated at the table. "How was your trip?"

"It was good", replied Cal, "lovely scenery up here, I'm excited for this weekend."

"Fantastic," Laurie replied, "I think this weekend should be a really good competition, I'm excited to see how each team performs, we have quite a mix."

"Great, can I ask how many teams?" Cal replied.

"Certainly, we have a small group this week, the minimum number we need to run a camp week and have it make sense, actually. There will be four teams, with each having just two players as you know from our chat a few weeks ago."

Cal recalled that chat...apparently his teammate was a woman. With just him and one other person he had never met on the team their dynamic would probably be crucial to winning. He hoped his teammate was in decent physical shape to compete, but Laurie had assured him he wouldn't be at a competitive disadvantage.

"Well, at least I have the maximum winning chance possible," he said with a smile, and grabbed his backpack from the back seat of his vehicle.

"You sure do," Laurie said, "let's head down to our base camp building, it's about a quarter mile walk further down towards the lake" she indicated, gesturing in the direction the road continued.

"Are all the other teams here already?" Cal asked, noting the other cars in the lot already.

"Nope, you're actually the first to arrive. The other vehicles belong to Pierre and I and the couples who are currently staying at the Guest Lodge."

"Oh, I guess I hadn't thought about that, with the reward for winning each competition being a week in that place it must be occupied close to year round for you all to make any sort of money."

"Yeah, it is occupied most of the year, although if I'm being honest our business model isn't strictly self-sustaining. Luckily this place seems to have an impact on people and they're willing to be generous and give time, money, and effort back rather than just taking full advantage. I suppose Pierre and I are riding our luck a little bit, but we feel like we must do something right if people are so generous with their time and money."

"Do you guys have many repeat guests? I'm not sure why but I had sort of assumed that it was a 'one and done' sort of situation?"

"Oh gosh yes, more than half our winners on an annual basis are repeat winners, meaning they have won before. Generally speaking we try to keep past winners in their own competitions and new competitors competing against other new players. Luckily for you," she said with a wink, "this is an all new player weekend, so you should have a fair chance."

"Fair enough", Cal replied, "is this it?" he asked as they approached a two story building that looked like something out of a '60s summer camp.

"Sure is", said Laurie, "this whole property was a boy scout camp up until 15 years ago when we bought it after the Scouts moved to a place in the Cookeville area so it was convenient for both Knoxville and Nashville. We have refurbished a lot, and built the the guest house from scratch, but a lot of that original camp remains. We feel like it gives the place a nice character, but I'll let you be the judge", she said with a confident smile. Cal could tell Laurie both took pride in this property.

Cal followed Laurie in the front door and was surprised by the contrast between the exterior and interior. The main interior room felt like a fancy mountain lodge, with a large stone fireplace to his right, surrounded by comfortable looking couches and chairs. To his left was a dining table and behind that a good sized bar separating the main room from a large kitchen with modern appliances. The first floor appeared to be mostly one open room separated by the bar with a few doors along the wall facing the main door.

"I hope it exceeds your expectations at least a little bit," Laurie said, smirking.

"Ha, yeah, can I just settle for second in the competition and a week in this place?" Cal replied with a laugh. If this was where the competitors got to stay, the cabin for the winners must be incredible, he assumed.

"Maybe if you play your cards right...but probably not," Laurie said with amusement. "Those two doors are public bathrooms if needed," she indicated two doors opposite the main entry, "and that one leads to the pantry and storage basement" she gestured towards a door off the kitchen. "The kitchen is fully stocked with food and drinks that should last the whole weekend, but if there's a shortage of anything feel free to see what you can find in storage or let Pierre or I know. You, and the other competitors, are welcome to cook or prep whatever you want, we don't do group dinners or anything like that. Nutrition is your responsibility. There's also a fully stocked bar, enjoy as you see fit."

"Sounds good, where do I sleep?" Cal asked.

"The private rooms are upstairs", she replied looking at her phone, "buuut good news, Pierre just texted me that your partner actually just pulled in, so if you can wait here for five minutes you can meet her and we'll show you to your accommodation."

"Great," he replied and took a seat on one of the couches and Laurie departed to go collect his partner.

'What an interesting place this is,' Cal thought to himself. An old scout camp on the outside but pretty darn nice interior. He did find it interesting that there was hardly any carpet on the ground floor. The main room seemed to be the original wood of the old cabin but polished to be a sort of rustic hardwood. Pierre and Laurie had certainly put in a decent amount of money for it to be this nice.

--------------------------D1S2------------------------------------(L)

'I still can't fucking believe I'm doing this,' Lindsey thought to herself as she cruised south on a two lane road an hour south of Knoxville. She still couldn't believe she, Linsey Grainger, top performer at her corporate job in Chicago, was going to some rural location in the backwoods of Tennessee to do some kind of weird athletics competition.

She thought back to the night this had all started. It had been particularly busy at work with several late nights and she was looking for some physical activity to get her mind off of work and to de-stress. The women's rec league soccer team she played on had a game at 6:30 on a Thursday and she had busted her tail to get her work done so that she could get there just in time for the kickoff. She was in a good mood, excited for the break from pressure at work, until she arrived at the field and the opposing team only had 7 players. A couple more trickled in, but they only ever got up to 9 so were two women short the whole game. The game was played at a low intensity since both teams knew it would not be competitive. Lindsey's team won by 10 goals and the match ended 20 minutes early by agreement of the captains. Lindsey was furious...she had worked all week so she could have this break as a reward to herself. She had also wanted to get in a good workout, but she had barely broken a sweat, the whole thing felt like such a waste of time. That she had basically planned her week around the game made it even more infuriating.

As was tradition after a win, her team gathered at a bar for a few rounds of drinks and dinner. By the time she got home, her frustration had been magnified by several rounds of cocktails and she had vowed she was going to find a new physical outlet. Down the internet rabbit hole she went, eventually ending up on the page for Appalachian Adventure Racing Camp and she had signed up on a whim because it sounded intense and totally different from any of the options around Chicago. Starting the next morning her anxiety about going had begun to build. There was the basic concern about doing something without any friends, but then she had also begun to worry about the safety aspect. Was it really a good idea to travel from Chicago to rural Tennessee on her own, particularly as a single woman?

She had been on the verge of asking for her money back or just cancelling when she'd gotten the video call from Laurie a few weeks ago to chat about potentially having a male partner. At first she'd been a bit taken aback, but Laurie's friendly and caring demeanor, as well as her transparency about the way they ran the camp, eased her worries enough she decided to go through with participating. It didn't hurt that the way Laurie described the intense competition was exactly what she was looking for. Of course, since that call the anxiety had started to build again as she imagined all the ways things could go wrong. She had just about missed her early morning flight out of O'Hare to Knoxville, half because she was terrible at getting going in the morning, half because she was hoping fate would intervene and she wouldn't have to go through with this.

Despite all her misgivings here she was. The GPS said she was at the right spot and she turned down an unmarked dirt lane, feeling uncomfortable and anxious. After a short drive down the dirt road it emerged from the trees and she saw a middle aged black man seated at a folding card table by the side of the road. This certainly didn't look like any sort of event she had ever participated in and she was fearful she was in the wrong place. She pulled up to the table and rolled down her window.

"Hello, looking for AARC?" the man asked in a kind voice. He had a bit of an odd accent Lindsey couldn't quite place. She thought it sounded French but there was a twang that reminded her of a Canadian college friend she'd had.

"Yes, I'm Lindsey Grainger, is this the right place?"

"It is indeed, if you want to just grab a parking space, I'll text my wife that you're here and she'll walk you down to the main lodge. Your partner beat you by just a few minutes and she went down with him."

Relief washed over Lindsey that she was at least in the right spot. She parked her car and retrieved her backpack, then walked over to where the man was seated.

"Hi, I'm Pierre," the man said, rising and offering a handshake, which Lindsey accepted. His grip was firm but gentle, his eyes kind. His calm demeanor put Lindsey further at ease. "I believe you met Laurie via video call, correct?"

"Yep, that's right, nice to meet you, Pierre," Lindsey said.

"Hey Lindsey!" Laurie called, emerging from the woods on the opposite side of the parking lot. Lindsey recognized the blonde woman from their video chat a few weeks ago.

"Hey, I made it after all!" Lindsey called back.

"We are very glad you did, we were on the verge of not having enough competitors," Pierre noted and explained the numbers of teams competing.

"Alright, without further ado, let's head to the lodge and you can meet your partner," Laurie said. "I'm sure you're eager to, teamwork is a crucial part of winning here, like we talked about."

Lindsey nodded and the two women bid farewell to Pierre and set off down the trail to the lodge. As they walked Laurie laid out some of the basics of the competition and gave her a brief history of the camp, which Lindsey learned had started life as a scout camp. As they walked she felt a new emotion begin to overcome her trepidation: excitement. Now that she was here she began to anticipate what an intense weekend of action it would be and that got her mind off some of the anxieties she had been experiencing. There was still one crucial element though: who her partner was. With a deep breath she followed Laurie through the main door of the lodge to meet the guy.

He was standing in the middle of the main room, leaning against a coach. She guessed he was probably in his early to mid thirties, and based on his tanned skin he spent a good amount of time outdoors. She figured that was probably a positive. He was not a particularly tall guy, only a few inches above her 5'6" frame. He seemed to be fit more than muscled, somewhat of a runner's build to his upper body. His soft gray eyes conveyed intelligence and kindness. Lindsey thought he would make a fine partner. He was also kind of cute.


--------------------------D1S3------------------------------------(C)

"Hey Cal, this is your partner Lindsey," Laurie gestured towards the woman who followed her into the lodge.

Lindsey looked like she was probably in her late 20s to early 30s, brunette, a bit shorter than Cal but only by a few centimeters. She had a fit, athletic frame, but not the skinny frame of a runner; toned but still some curves. 'Athletic, but not self-obsessed with her image to the point she won't enjoy a post-game beer,' was his first, and positive, impression. Lindsey was his type.

When Laurie had called him a few weeks ago about if having a female partner was ok with him he'd been concerned about what the dynamics might be like, but he figured he played all kinds of co-ed sports, and Laurie had explained they seemed like they'd make a good team based on their entry forms.

"Hi, Lindsey Granger, nice to meet you" the woman said, approaching Cal with hand extended.

"Hi Lindsey, I'm...Thomas Jefferson", Cal replied with a grimace. "This is why introductions terrify me", he babbled, "my mom's maiden name is Thomas and my parents met at the University of Virginia. Apparently it was destiny that this be my name. Luckily, they aren't complete psychopaths, so they called me Cal since they lived in California when I was born, so let's stick with that..." Cal trailed off, realizing he was rambling. 'Real smooth first impression, champ' he admonished himself internally.

Lindsey let out a relieved giggle. His slightly awkward, but funny intro, seemed to diffuse tension within her and there was an awkward silence. Lindsey laughed again, a bit awkwardly herself, and replied. "Well it's more exciting than my Midwestern parents just picking a random Christian girl name, so I'm good with it...TJ," she said with a friendly, but slightly mocking, smirk.

Cal cringed with amusement and rolled his eyes. "Are we 100% settled on our partners for this weekend?" he pointedly, but sarcastically, asked Laurie.

"Haha, yes unfortunately for you two, we are. I hope you can overcome your name difficulties," she answered, laughing at the encounter. "Your room is up the stairs, you two will be Team 2 this weekend so you'll be in Suite 2. Please let me know if you have any issues. We'll be kicking off with our first competition at 4:00 PM barring any late arrivals so please be ready out in the main field behind the base camp building on time and ready to go. I'll swing by and give you a head's up if there is any delay. I do want to let you know our first game is a mix of mind and fitness, so I would not recommend trying to game out a strategy. Here is your door access code," she said, handing them each a slip of paper with a four digit code.

"Sounds good, thanks Laurie," Lindsey said with a smile.

Cal shouldered his bag and they headed upstairs. It appeared the upstairs hallway actually ran along the 'front' side of the building facing the area where they came in, with the rooms all overlooking the 'back' of the building and the main field, as Laurie had referred to it. Cal punched in their code and politely opened the door for Lindsey.

"This is interesting", commented Lindsey with trepidation as they walked into the room and set their bags down on the weird table/cabinet piece of furniture common to chain hotels that took up the left side of the main room.

"Indeed," Cal replied observing the surprisingly small space. The most prominent feature was a pair of oversized bunk beds taking up nearly a third of the total area of the room.

"I guess when she said 'suite' I envisioned some sort of common area with private bedrooms," Cal thought out loud. "Considering how spacious this lodge is I'm not sure why we're crammed into such a small living space.

"Yeah, same here. I guess maybe they normally have a lot more than just four teams competing," Lindsey suggested an explanation.

"Well I suppose it's only for 48 hours, right? I'm here to compete, not worry about sleeping accommodations," Cal said.

"Cheers to that," Lindsey replied, walking towards the bathroom. "Wow, check this out, the room may not be five star but look at this shower, holy cow!" The shower 'stall' was as large as some bathrooms he'd been in, with both an overhead rainfall shower head and a more traditional shower head mounted on the wall that was also detachable. The floor appeared to be marble.

"Well at least they want us to be able to wash off I guess," Cal agreed.

They walked back out in the main room and deposited their bags at the end of the bunk beds.

"So awkward icebreaker curiosity question, Lindsey, what drove you to compete in this deal?" Cal thought that was a good question to initiate their discussion while they waited for 4:00.

"Fair question", Lindsey replied. "Honestly the biggest thing for me is that I just don't feel like the stuff I participate in offers the level of competition I want. Maybe that sounds weird or conceited? But, like, I love playing on my girls' and co-ed soccer teams, but an 8 PM kickoff with nobody watching on a Thursday, like where's the intensity? And sure, maybe the teams are closely matched and the game is close and it builds intensity over the course of the game, but it's equally likely one team or the other totally overmatches the other and it's not close. Same thing with the 5k's and races I do. Like, ok, this is a competition, but realistically I know I have no shot if there's elite semi-pro runners. I'm not on that level and never will be unless I'm reincarnated with a runner's DNA. So I guess I'm really looking for the adrenaline rush of an intense competition that I feel like I have a real shot to win."

"Yeah, I definitely get that," Cal replied, "my motivations are actually pretty similar. I play on both a men's and co-ed soccer teams as well and I understand what you're saying; like sure the intensity MIGHT get high over the course of the game, but you walk on the field the same way you go the gym for a workout - minimal intensity. I'm not a runner, but the bike events I go to it's the same thing as you describe. There's the anticipation for the start but there's always some semi-pro or even straight up pro that's 'home on break from competition' who everyone knows is going to smoke the field. I love the pre-race camaraderie, but I never feel that intensity of 'maybe today is my day to win one' because, to mirror what you said, I'm not a genetic marvel," he said with a laugh.

"Exactly! I really couldn't agree more", Lindsey said enthusiastically, "Well the good news is here we are, and if what Laurie told me is correct we lucked out - only four teams this weekend, so we better have a real chance. Let's bring our own intensity, Team Whatever It Takes?" she asked.

"HELL YEAH, I love that motto!" Cal replied and they high fived. He felt an instant connection to Lindsey, it seemed like they were cut from the same cloth in many ways.

"I'm super excited to have a partner that thinks like me and wants to get after this. To be honest, my biggest fear was a partner that had sort of a 'here for the beer' attitude. I know everyone wants the grand prize, but I'm super stoked to have someone who seems to think like me", Lindsey said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

Cal's smile was both enormous and genuine - "I don't want to be too extra, but I am so, so, so stoked to be paired with someone who thinks like that. I guess maybe I understand why the organizers thought we'd be such a good pair, eh?" he laughed.

Lindsey smiled with relief at his reception to her proclamation. "To team 'whatever it takes'?" Lindsey asked, pulling her water bottle out of the side pocket of her backpack and holding it up for a toast.

"Absofuckinglutely," Cal agreed, grabbing his own water bottle and raising it in a mock toast.

"Wow, that was kind of corny," Lindsey laughed, "Sorry about that, maybe got a bit carried away."

"All good," Cal replied, "I'm kind of giddy, nervous too, but it's great to be paired with someone who has a similar mindset, and it's not as if we have got tons of time to 'team build'. I also appreciate that we can be up front with each other even if we're a little corny."

"I'll drink to that," Lindsey agreed, taking a sip from her water bottle.

"Cheers," grinned Cal.

"Man, I have been so anxious about coming down here. Travelling a long ways, not sure what I'm getting myself into. Really happy I did now," the relief in Lindsey's voice was tangible. "So," she continued "I can't think of anything we could realistically do to give us an advantage for this first challenge. We have no real idea what to expect so I think we just stay open minded? I think we have to play this one straight up and hope our impromptu 'team building' helps us," she stated.

"Yeah, I think you're right, unless we can look out the back window and see something helpful I can't think of anything we can really do to prepare aside from being in a good headspace," agreed Cal.

"Yep, nothing useful, they've got some sort of plastic screen that makes it impossible to tell what's going on," Lindsey replied as she looked out the window.

"Yep, agreed" Cal said, joining her at the window. "Well shall we head down then? Don't think we need to unpack or anything."

"Sounds good," Lindsey said, "I don't think I need to change or anything, I picked an outfit that I thought would work to compete in so I could just take a backpack on the plane." Lindsey's outfit was pretty standard workout attire - grey leggings with a burgundy sport tank top. He was wearing navy blue athletic pants with a grey t-shirt.

"Gosh, I don't even know where you're from, sorry I should've asked," Cal said, realizing she had said flight.

"No worries," Lindsey answered, "I'm from Chicago, there are direct flights to Knoxville but it was a pretty early morning for me. How about you?"

"I live in Chattanooga, I drove up this morning, so yeah a bit of an early wake up but nothing crazy," Cal replied.

"Cool, I've heard that's a really fun little city, but have never been," she said.

"Yeah, I like it alright. Not as much going on as the big city though."

They walked out of the building, continuing to chat about their respective cities. They soon reached the plastic screen that was suspended between two poles preventing them from seeing the competition set up. Lindsey glanced at her watch, almost 4 PM.


--------------------D1S4------------------------------------(L)

"Hey everyone, grab a spot," Laurie shouted in greeting as she emerged from behind the screen, followed by Pierre. The four teams of two awkwardly approached their 'starting' positions, each was marked with a number from 1 to 4. This didn't exactly have the choreography of 'Survivor' or other reality shows.

"I'd like to both welcome you to Appalachian Adventure Racing Camp again and briefly introduce you to your competitors! I apologize in advance, but this will be very awkward undergrad freshman intro style, but with the grand prize in mind I bet you all can get past that," she said with a grin. 'Laurie seems like she really has a great time and loves this place,' Lindsey thought to herself.

"Alright Team 1, go ahead and tell us what you're all about," Laurie instructed.

Lindsey's assessment of Team 1 was mixed. On one hand these guys clearly spent an A LOT of time in the gym. One guy was a muscular dude with a dark complexion and the other guy was a hulking blonde man who looks like was raised tossing hay bales every morning. She guessed both were in the mid to late 20's.

"Hey," replied the shorter guy with the dark complexion, speaking in a New York accent, "My name is Tommy and me and my boy Dillon here are going to put our hard work in the gym to good use so we can bring our lady friends here to party when we win the prize. Sorry to crush youz guyz (that's how his accent sounded to Lindsey) hopes but this comp is ours!"

Cal stumbled into his intro, Lindsey thought he hadn't realized it was their turn so quickly, "Hi everyone, we're Team 2. My name's Cal, I'm up from Chattanooga. Looking forward to competing with you all. We just met so I'll let Lindsey introduce herself."

Lindsey gave Cal a glance of appreciation, "Hey all, I'm Lindsey, I'm down from Chicago. Cal and I are are both looking for competition that's both a bit more intense and has a bit more meaning that what we participate in right now. We look forward to fun but intense competition with you all this weekend." She punctuated her statement with an awkward smile.

"Hello, guess that makes us Team 3," exclaimed a small woman with pale skin and dark, curly hair at the next station. She couldn't be much more than 5' tall, Lindsey guessed, but she could already tell from her body language and tone her confidence was much larger than her stature.

"My name's Annie and this is my husband and partner, Stefan," she said, gesturing to a tall, skinny man with dark skin. "We're here to both compete and deepen our marriage," she stated, looking up lovingly at Stefan who was well over a foot taller than her.

"Hello, nice to meet you all," Stefan said with an awkward wave; he seemed to have a British accent. Lindsey guessed the couple might be a bit older, perhaps mid-30's.

"Greetings, looks like we're Team 4," a short, but athletic-looking, blonde from the final team said, "I'm Bailey and this is my partner Cara," she stated, gesturing to her teammate with a similar build, albeit taller, but with darker complexion and dark hair.

"Hey all," Cara said "We were teammates in college and still great friends. We're just looking for something to push us a bit. We want to be friendly with all of you but we also want to be upfront that we're here to compete. Hope that doesn't make us jerks. Best of luck to all teams," she stated with a smile that seemed both genuine and forceful.

"Alright, thanks everybody," Laurie called, "I'm looking forward to this weekend because we have a really diverse mix of teams. We've got the classic husband and wife team, a team that just met each other but is out to win, and two teams of friends!" She cut her eyes towards Team 4 at that comment. Lindsey wondered if perhaps the ladies from Team 4 had some connection beyond just former teammates. "And, lucky for you all, this is one of the smallest groups we've ever had for a first timer competition, you all have a one in four shot at winning the grand prize, lucky ducks."

"I agree with Laurie," Pierre jumped in, "you have a great opportunity in front of you. I'm sure you're all eager to find out more about the first challenge, so let's get to it!" His tone was a bit more measured compared to Laurie's rah-rah enthusiasm, but Lindsey could tell he was also excited to kick things off. Laurie raised the plastic divider to reveal four crates, one for each team.

"Each team obviously has an assigned crate," Pierre continued, "each crate has 250 water balloons filled with mineral oil. Your task is to get 50 of the balloons to your team's corresponding crate at the opposite end of our parade ground, (apparently that's what they called this large clearing, a carryover from the scout days most likely) which is about a half mile away. Of course we didn't want to make this first challenge too straightforward for all of you, so we sourced the absolute thinnest balloons we could find, AND we poured all of the excess oil on top of the filled balloons, so be warned, they'll be slippery to pick up and will break easily if you are not careful!" he said with a slightly evil smirk. "In case it's not obvious you may not use any objects, tools or clothing not currently on your person. You are locked in with the skills and tools you have at this very second!"

"Alright!" Laurie shouted, "Everyone ready to roll? Good luck, try your hardest and we'll see you all again soon! The game starts now!"

-----------------D1S5---------------------------- (L)

Cal was a bit taken aback at the abrupt start of the game. Luckily Lindsey wasn't, she jogged up to their crate and began examining the balloons. Cal quickly re-focused and joined her at the crate.

"What do you think?" he asked, grabbing a slippery balloon to examine just how slippery and thin they were.

Lindsey's logical brain quickly began calculating how many balloons they could move per trip and thinking about what could hold the most volume. She was not excited at what she concluded but thought about the mantra of doing whatever it took to win. She began feeling herself blush, but forced herself to speak.

"So my first thought is how can we transport the most volume per trip." Lindsey started, "I was thinking about what could hold the most volume that we have available and obviously my first thought was our pants."

She waited a moment for Cal to process what she was saying. She could see as he realized her thought process that if they filled our pants with balloons we could haul way more than if they just grabbed as many as we could or used their shirts as baskets.

"But then I kept going to the logical conclusion," Lindsey continued, "and I realized that our legs will take up the majority of volume of our pants if we're wearing them...so," she took a deep breath, "sorry if this is creepy but I think the winning strategy is take off our pants, tie the legs together and use them to transport as many balloons as we can, like a very oddly shaped bag," she said in a rush with flushed cheeks and obvious trepidation.

Cal took a moment to comprehend what she was saying, but quickly realized she was completely correct. "Yeah...I think you're exactly right now that I think about it. Well we did say 'whatever it takes' right? I just thought that would be in the context of pushing ourselves physically to the limit, not embarrassment. Oh well, it's just underwear I guess, we're adults, we've probably worn less at the beach."

"You're mostly right, unfortunately my one concession to personal vanity was that I didn't want to have visible panty lines on my flight down, so mine cover a bit less than I'd like...or what I normally wear to the beach." Lindsey's cheeks were bright red at this admission. She admonished herself for not changing into more sensible underwear before the game started.

"Oh, sorry," Cal quickly backtracked, "I'm just wearing normal boxers, should we just use my pants?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant and not why I'm here. We're supposed to be 'team whatever it takes' I can't get cold feet at the first hurdle, let's do this." Telling herself to just not think about it, without further ado Lindsey kicked off her shoes and pulled down her yoga pants and leaned down to peel them over her socks. She knew the pale yellow thong she was wearing didn't cover much. Cal at least had the decency not to stare and quickly undressed, removing his shoes and the track pants he was wearing. Lindsey and Cal tied the legs of their pants together using strong knots.

"Alright, let's see how many balloons they'll hold. Let's both keep a count so we know where we are. We need to know how many trips we need to make," Lindsey said. They both glanced around and realized all the other teams were long gone already. Team 1, the guys, were actually already unloading balloons at the destination containers.

"Yeah, good idea," Cal agreed "not sure how many balloons the other teams grabbed but I can't imagine we'll need more than two runs."

They began placing the slippery balloons in their pants and counting out loud, "One, two, three..." Getting a grip on the balloons was hard and only became trickier as their hands got oily. It felt like they ended up dropping or bursting every third balloon.

Lindsey's light grey leggings quickly began to show the effects of the oil. She looked at them with mild dismay but quickly dismissed it; she knew from the description and reviews this camp was about intense competition and that normally involved getting clothes sweaty and dirty. Too bad the oil stains probably were permanent. She glanced at Cal who had happened to wear dark blue pants which wouldn't visibly stain. 'Lucky bastard,' she thought.

After a few minutes Lindsey's pants were filled to the brim. "I think that's about all I can get in, might be able to balance a couple more on top" she said, "I'm at 22."

Cal was a little taller so he was able to fit a few more, "I think I'm maxed too, I'm at 26."

"Shit," exclaimed Lindsey, "we're so darned close!"

As she said that Team 1 made their breathless return to their crate. Clearly they had run the mile of their first run at an impressively fast pace. Lindsey didn't think more than 5 minutes had passed and if they were anywhere near that kind of running pace they were some stiff competition this week. Embarrassed, Lindsey half squatted behind her team's crate so the guys couldn't see that she was in just a thong. They both quickly grabbed handfuls of balloons holding them against the dark colored sleeveless shirts both were wearing and took off again without glancing at Lindsey and Cal.

"I think if we tuck our shirts into our underwear we could probably each hold five or six in our shirts in order to get to 50 and give ourselves some cushion if any burst," Call suggested tentatively.

"Nice, good thinking," Lindsey said enthusiastically, she was getting into the spirit of the game. "If we set down our filled pants they'll spill out and I'm not sure we can hold them one handed without some spilling, but I think one person could hold both pairs, kind of like when you're folding a sheet together, know what I mean?"

"Yep that's a great idea," Cal replied.

"Ok great, here you hold mine first."

Lindsey held the waistband of her pants up to Cal's and he gingerly grabbed it while still holding his own. This way he could hold both up by the waists so no balloons spilled out.

Lindsey quickly tucked the burgundy tank top she was wearing into the waistband of her thong. She was glad that despite her thong being more revealing than she'd like, it was new and fit snugly, so it should be able to hold the weight of a few balloons. She held open the collar of her tank top and dropped the first balloon towards her stomach. Unfortunately the drop from her neckline to her waist was too much for the thin balloon and it burst. She could feel the oil soaking the bottom hem of her shirt and into the front of her thong.

"Damnit," Lindsey shouted, "it burst!" She thought for a moment about how to solve the problem. "Ok, I think I can make this work, we just need to slow it down so when it hits our waists it's not going so fast."

She grabbed a second balloon and held it just below her chin and gently rolled it down towards her cleavage. The balloon rolled over her white sports bra (not a great color choice for modesty, Lindsey realized, but at least nobody should need to see that) and with the friction reducing the velocity compared to being dropped from neck height, plopped into the pouch created by her shirt.

"Yes!" Lindsey shouted, "Ok I think I can get another five in no problem, just give me a minute and we'll switch."

"Ok, good stuff," Cal replied.

-----------------D1S6---------------------------- (C)

Cal'd been observing Lindsey figuring this challenge out. The oil from the exploded balloon had made the front of her yellow panties go practically transparent. His teammate appeared to be quite well groomed below the waist. Trying to avoid being inappropriate he diverted his attention to checking up on the other teams.

Team 1 appeared to be close to reaching the finish container for their second dropoff, however from what he'd seen when they stopped by a few minutes ago they couldn't be getting more than 10 balloons a run. He was pretty sure that if he and Lindsey could get 50 in one run they'd beat them.

Team 4 had actually just arrived back at their crate and were filling up again. They seemed mainly to be holding their shirts out in the front, cradling the balloons the way you might carry a bunch of fruit, which had been Cal's first idea. They were probably moving a few more balloons per run than Team 1 but they couldn't move very fast and have many balloons in their shirts or they'd fall out.

Team 3 was just approaching their starting crate. Cal couldn't tell for sure because Annie's athletic dress was black, but she looked like she taken a bath in oil. 'Maybe their first trip wasn't very successful' he thought. Stefan appeared to have a few dry spots but was in a similar condition. As Cal watched they approached their crate and Stefan tossed a balloon at Annie. She held out her dress to 'try' to catch it and it burst against her chest, oil running down her torso. Giggling, she rubbed the dress into the oil, clearly enjoying the sensation. Cal didn't quite understand, perhaps they weren't taking this seriously and had given up? That was a pretty big entry fee to not even try.

"I think that should be good, I have five in the front and three in the back." Lindsey said, bringing Cal back from his reverie.

"That brings us to 56; I'll do a few as well just to be safe," Cal said. "Uh, how did you get the ones down your back since, you know, you...uh don't have boobs on your back?" Cal asked.

"Oh, I discovered that the balloon actually only breaks like one time in five if you drop it from your neckline. I just got really unlucky with that first one I guess."

"Gotcha, ok here take the pants."

Lindsey carefully took both pairs of pants from Cal, being careful to keep them upright and not lose any balloons.

Cal tucked his shirt into his boxers and grabbed a balloon. Holding the neck of his grey t-shirt out he dropped it down his front. The balloon exploded at his waistband, soaking the hem of his T-shirt and seeping around his cock and into his boxers, a similar situation to Lindsey a few minutes ago. 'At least my boxers are a dark green checkered pattern, shouldn't show anything inappropriate' he thought, thinking about how much of Lindsey was currently on display. That got a tiny rise of arousal from his gut, 'I need to be careful,' he realized. He didn't want an embarrassing bulge to develop. Grabbing another balloon he tried again, unfortunately with similar results. Assuming his luck was terrible he tried a third time, this time down his back and ended up with oil seeping down his butt crack for his troubles.

"Damnit!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"Ok sorry, sorry," Lindsey laughed, breaking into a grin. "I felt like you needed that experience and I'm pretty sure we're in good shape relative to the other teams. She glanced towards Team 3 which seemed to now be engaged in some sort of oil balloon juggling competition.

"I just leaned forward and dropped it down my back. If it rolls along your torso it's slow enough you should be fine," she explained.

Cal felt a little bit frustrated. He thought they were supposed to be focusing on winning, not getting each other messy. He leaned backward as if he was going under a limbo bar and rolled several balloons down his chest, then a few down his back with his posture reversed.

"Alright, I have five in front and five in back. We've got 66 on us now so that's a good cushion to do this in one run. I think we can move a little quicker wearing shoes," he said, putting his back on.

He took the pants from Lindsey so she could do the same then handed her back her pants to carry. Checking the other teams they saw Team 1 had apparently come and gone during their shirt misadventures and was well into their third run.

Team 3's odd behavior continued. They were about a quarter of the way back to the finish zone; both now just wearing their underwear. Stefan had left his shirt by their starting crate for some reason, but he apparently had stolen Lindsey's idea for a pants bag. Annie appeared to be doing similar, except her dress was not an ideal vessel. Cal began to worry that his and Lindsey's deliberate approach may not be the winning one.

Team 4, the teammates from college, were just arriving back for their third run. They looked at Lindsey and Cal quizzically. They seemed to understand the 'pant bag' approach, but were powerless to replicate it since they'd both worn shorts.

"Alright, let's go," Lindsey said, "I'm a little concerned about Team 3 but they spent so much time messing around I think we're still good if we can do this in one run. I think if we move at a light jog we shouldn't lose any balloons. Like maybe 10 minute mile sort of pace?"

"Yep, agreed. I think that'll work," Cal replied.

They began lightly jogging towards the finish crates, holding their pants carefully to avoid balloons spilling out. Team 1 ran past in the opposite direction and Cal could tell they gave double takes: one for them ridiculously running along with their pants held out in front of them and one for Lindsey's transparent thong.

Team 3, the couple, also passed them heading back to the start. Stefan was still in his underwear but Annie was wearing her soaked dress again. Her once curly hair was now largely plastered to her scalp, soaked in oil.

Lindsey and Cal arrived at the finish crate barely winded, both were in good shape and the pace they could go without bursting balloons didn't really push them.

"We need to be careful putting them into this crate," Lindsey said, "we can't just drop them in or they'll burst like they did when we first tried to put them in our shirts and soaked our underwear."

"Well, strictly speaking the oil in my underwear isn't necessary," Cal pointed out, a bit perturbed, but mostly joking, "but yes, you're right."

Lindsey and Cal began carefully placing balloons into the finish container, carefully counting out loud. They were pleased to find only two had burst, one in each of their 'pants bags'.

"Alright, so we're at 46 out of 50 and we have another 18 in our shirts, we got this," Cal said.

"We should," replied Lindsey, "but how the heck do we get them from our shirts into the crate? I don't know about you, but I can't reach my waist through the neck of my top, and I'm pretty sure mine is lower cut than yours."

"Heh, well we could just sit over the crate, pull out our shirts and play the percentages?" Cal thought out loud. "We only need 4 of 18 to win this thing."

Lindsey thought about it, "Alright, let's give it a try, the percentages seem to be on our side. You go first since you have more in your shirt, that'll up our chance of success."

Cal nodded and positioned himself over the finishing crate. He tried to sit as low as possible to minimize the distance from his waist to the balloons below, then pulled his shirt out of his waistband. The balloons fell and many exploded on the balloons already in the crate.

"Shit shit!!!" cried Lindsey. "Stop, stop them!"

Cal frantically tried to grab the last balloons falling out of his shirt. He was able to corral one with his hands that was rolling between his legs. A second rolled down his leg and actually landed in the crate without bursting as a result of its reduced speed. He carefully set the one in his hands down with the others. He realized that even as low as he'd gotten in the crate the distance from his waist to the ground was still too much for the flimsy balloons.

"Crap, that wasn't our best idea," Cal said. "Any idea if any more than two survived?"

"I don't think so, and I'm also not positive we didn't burst any that were already in there."

Pierre and Laurie were standing a few feet away, observing the proceedings. "There's actually a digital scale for each of your crates," Laurie said, gesturing towards a small panel on the back that Lindsey and Cal hadn't noticed. "We know the weight of 50 so we'll let you know when you've reached it, but we won't tell you how many short you are."

"Fuck, we're going to be riding our luck," Cal said. "I guess if we need to run a fast mile and grab a few more we're at least pretty fresh since we haven't worked too hard thus far."

"We should be able to get these things from inside my shirt into this crate," Lindsay said in a frustrated tone, "this shouldn't be that hard." She bent over and carefully pushed her right arm under the waistband of her underwear, reaching up from below her waist. The angle was extremely awkward and she couldn't get a grip on any of the balloons. She used her other hand to pull her waistband out and a balloon plopped into her hand, but a second fell into the gap and with how slick her skin and clothing were now she couldn't manage to catch it before it fell to the ground and burst. She almost lost the first balloon in process, but deposited it in the crate successfully.

Cal and Lindsey both looked at Laurie hopefully as Lindsey put the balloon she had grabbed into the crate. The blonde woman looked back at them trying to look detached but couldn't help but smile mockingly.

"Crap, we're down to six left and we don't even know if that's enough. I have another less than comfortable, but hopefully winning, idea," Lindsey said.

"Let's hear it," Cal said, "I'd be pretty freaking frustrated to be this close to winning and not getting it."

"So it's difficult for me to reach into my own underpants from below because of the angle...but you could use two hands pretty easily to grab the balloons, I think, so.." she trailed off, clearly a bit embarrassed at what she was proposing. She turned and placed her hands on the finish crate, bending at the waist to offer easier access. "Please pull the ones from the back, that's at least a tiny bit less awkward for me."

"Ok, sorry sorry," Cal said as he moved behind her and took a knee. He could tell she was embarrassed and he felt awkward himself.

"Don't apologize, we're here to win," Lindsey stated.

Cal used his left hand to pull out the elastic of Lindsey's thong just below the balloon that was being held in place above her right butt cheek while his right waited for the balloon. This angle was much easier to work with than when she had been trying to do it to herself and he was able to prevent any other balloons from falling out. He carefully deposited the one he had harvested into the crate. He didn't dwell on where his hands had been on his attractive partner, but it wasn't lost on him either.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" Laurie shouted, "That's 50, Team 2 you get first place in our opening round."

-----------------D1S7---------------------------- (L)


Lindsey's emotions felt crazy. Seconds ago she'd been worried they were about to blow their lead and apprehensive a guy she'd only met a few hours ago was basically feeling her ass, at her request no less. Now she felt pure elation at all the weirdness having paid off in a victory. She turned around and raised her arms in celebration then embraced Cal, not thinking about the three balloons still in the front of her shirt. They burst and oil once again soaked their waists and flowed down over their crotches. 'Oh, that is giving me some kind of feeling,' Lindsey thought to herself, quickly ending the embrace.

"Sorry about that," she laughed, "I didn't think about them still being in my shirt, I was just so stoked to win." She was a little embarrassed but had a huge smile on her face. "You can smash the last two on my back to make up for it." She turned around, presenting her back to him.

"Ha, it's all good," Cal replied, looking down at his re-soaked shirt and underwear, "I'm super excited that we won too and, let's be honest, we were both already pretty covered." It didn't take more than a light poke to pop the last two balloons and Lindsey felt a fresh wave of oil flow over her bottom. "That's for tricking me back at the start though."

Lindsey laughed, "That's fair turnabout."

Coming down from the high of victory Lindsey realized she was standing in her soaked underwear and felt embarrassed. She grabbed her pants and began untying them. Cal seemed to have similar feelings, and quickly untied and put his pants back on. Putting on pants that were basically soaked in oil certainly felt strange, but she had to admit to herself she slightly enjoyed the sensation.

"My wardrobe choices today were certainly not ideal," she joked, trying to break the awkward tension they both suddenly felt. "The sports bra I'm wearing is actually white, glad that's not on display."

"Eh, for all your lamenting about wearing a thong, it's sure made that last part easier," he commented, thinking about how much trickier extracting a balloon would be if he had to deal with more than just a waistband. "Not to mention we would have been out of luck if we wore shorts right," he gestured towards the ladies from Team 4. "I'm really happy we got the win. At the end of the day these are just workout clothes, who really cares, right? They're meant to get dirty and sweaty in."

"Good points," Lindsey agreed, "although these leggings might be stained beyond repair." She looked down at her pants. Their original light grey was almost completely dark grey now with just a few dry spots. "I guess I can wear them to paint and stuff. Hey, Laurie, do we need to wait for the other teams to finish or what's the protocol?" she asked.

"You can head back," Laurie replied, "we left a bunch of ratty towels on the front porch for you to clean up with. Please just try to avoid dripping oil on the floor to the extent you can. Be in the lounge in about an hour for a briefing on tomorrow."

Lindsey and Cal turned to walk back towards the cabin. The athletes from Team 4 were just arriving with another load of balloons. They both were just wearing sports bras and carrying their shirts which they had tied at the bottom hem in a less efficient version of the 'pants bag' Team 2 had used. They didn't have much choice since they'd worn shorts. The girls quickly but carefully unloaded their balloons and soon Laurie was shouting 'congratulations' again to the 2nd place team.

The girls joined Cal and Lindsey for the walk back to the main cabin. "Wow, you all are absolutely soaked!" Cara exclaimed, "congrats on your win, we 100% stole your idea for maximizing carrying capacity by taking off clothes. You guys had an advantage with the pants though," she said with amusement.

Lindsey laughed, "well we didn't plan that, we just came out here in the clothes we arrived in. Which are, as you noted, now very well oiled." The group laughed at her ironic tone.

"It was really smart to think of solving the problem that way though, the rest of us didn't think about how we could really maximize what we had, so props," Bailey said.

"Thanks," Cal replied, "very much Lindsey's outside the box idea, but very logical thinking."

"Cal and I just met," Lindsey said, her cheeks reddening a bit, "but we committed to doing our absolute best to win this thing. I guess that helped me put aside my embarrassment at running around here in a thong and find the best option."

"You're wearing a thong?!" Cara asked, "Well props to you girl, we didn't notice but I salute you doing whatever it takes to get the W."

Cal and Lindsey shared an amused and knowing look at her comment. They were about halfway back to the starting line and Team 3 came running past. Once again they were just wearing black underwear; Stefan carrying his pants with the legs tied together, presumably full of balloons and Annie using her dress as a sort of balloon sling. Both were rather obviously now soaked head to toe in the baby oil.

"Hmmm well that's interesting," Lindsey commented, "I guess they're adopting my strategy?"

"Ok yeah but it's obviously not necessary to be completely soaked to do that. I'm not crazy, it looked like even their hair had oil in it right?" Bailey asked. "Wait, speaking of which, why are your shirts so oily? I thought you carried all the balloons in your pants?"

"So I'm not quite sure on what their motivations are," Cal answered Bailey's first question, "but I'm not sure how seriously they're taking this thing. It seems like more of a lark to them. To answer your second question, we couldn't fit 50 balloons in our pants, so we tucked our shirts into our underwear to carry the rest."

Lindsey noticed Team 1, the guys, barreling past still running hard, they had to be on their 5th run by now and were noticeably sweaty and tiring but still carrying just a few balloons per trip. She wondered why they hadn't taken notice of any of the other teams.

The four competitors soon arrived at the porch of the main cabin.

"Well it looks like your cleanup might be a little more complicated than ours," Bailey said with a laugh, "We'll catch you both in a bit."

The two ladies from Team 4 just tossed their oil soaked t-shirts over the railing to dry and wiped their hands on the old towels left out and headed inside.

Cal and Lindsey were quite a bit messier, they both removed their shoes and socks, which had mostly avoided the oil and tried to wipe off the worst of it from their clothes so they wouldn't drip inside, per Pierre and Laurie's request. They quickly walked up to their room.

"You can grab the first shower," Cal offered.

"Such a gentleman, thanks," Lindsey smiled, grabbing her bag and disappearing into the bathroom.

She briefly considered her options then figured if her clothes were basically soaked in oil why not just hop in as is? She got in the magnificent shower and turned on both heads to let the water warm. Once the water was at a nice temperature she stepped into the stream. It felt so strange standing in the shower fully clothed. It made her feel odd but also a bit excited. Wearing clothes in the shower wasn't allowed, right?

After a few minutes of soaking she began to disrobe to try to wring out the oil. First came her sporty burgundy tank top, which she rang out several times trying to get rid of the oil. Next came her now completely transparent white sports bra. She washed it in the water and then tried to wipe the oil from her torso. It was an odd feeling, she felt like she couldn't quite get all of the oil off her body. 'That's probably normal if you're soaked in oil' she thought...'wait who the heck gets soaked in baby oil?' Putting those thoughts aside she pulled down and kicked off her leggings for the second time in as many hours, then repeated the process of trying to wash the oil out of them.

Discarding her pants she was about to remove her underwear when she looked down at them. 'Oh my' she thought, not only was a thong a terrible choice but so was light yellow. The wet front of her thong was pretty much completely transparent. She had been practically naked in front of her new teammate and who knew how many others. She felt so embarrassed but also appreciative of Cal for not being creepy about it.


--------------------------D1S8----------------------- (C)

Lindsey emerged from the bathroom wearing white running shorts and a red soccer jersey with the logo of a Chicago restaurant chain emblazoned on it - this was the jersey for one of the amateur teams she played on, Cal assumed.

"My turn?" Cal asked. He was sitting on a towel in one the chairs looking awkward.

"Yep...hey, just a couple things I'd like to say to you as my teammate if that's ok." Lindsey said, taking a deep breath, "First, I appreciate you letting me give my own intro at the start of the challenge. I feel like we should be equals on this team so I appreciate the acknowledgement. Same thing with telling the girls it was my winning idea. I really appreciate how you're treating me as an equal partner.

"Second, I had NO earthly clue my panties would be so transparent once the oil soaked them. I REALLY appreciate you not just being creepy about pretty much being able to see all my bits and keeping a focus on the game," she finished.

"Oh gosh," Cal replied, "I'm not going to be a weirdo and say I hadn't noticed. You're a very attractive woman and I don't want to tear down your self-esteem by pretending otherwise. But I also really appreciate that you're all about winning, I love that. That's WHY I came here, to compete and win. So I love that you seem to be all in on that with me even if we have to do some things that aren't completely comfortable. Honestly I'm really stoked you're my partner for this weekend." Cal figured that was close enough to the truth. His sexy partner had had his attention pretty much all afternoon, but he did want to win badly and creeping on his teammate didn't seem like a winning strategy.

"Thanks," Lindsey said, looking relieved, "I'm going to just put my clothes out on the porch railing to dry out like where the ladies left their shirts, but I don't really want my underwear on display for the whole camp, ironic, I know, so I left my underwear on the counter to dry. Hope that's not any weirder than what's already gone on today."

"Makes sense," Cal replied, "fine with me." Inwardly he was certainly not complaining about seeing more of his sexy partner's underwear, even if she wasn't in it.

He headed into the bathroom and showered off, doing his best to clean his garments and wring out the oil, then dressed in a clean pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

When he came out of the bathroom Lindsey was sitting on the bottom bunk of their bed both wide eyed and amused. She put a finger over her lips to tell him to be quiet while also pointing towards their wall in the direction of Room 3.

"Oh yes, rail my oily pussy with your big dirty cock!" a voice, clearly a woman's yelled. Cal did the obvious math, this almost assuredly had to be Annie.

"Be quiet, you dirty slut or I'll shove these nasty slimy panties in your whore mouth," roared a man, presumably Stefan, in response.

"Fucking do it and do meeee," the woman shrieked.

There was no more shouting after that. Cal returned Lindsey's wide eyed. "Well I guess we need to keep our voices down," he said, "and I guess I have a better understanding of what 'deeping our marriage' means."

Lindsey guffawed at his comment, "Let's head downstairs and let them continue 'deepening things' as you call it," she suggested.

They went downstairs to the lounge room, the only others there were Cara and Bailey, sitting on a couch and scrolling on their phones. Lindsey and Cal sat down on an adjacent couch.

"You guys get an earful of our competition as well?" Bailey asked.

"Ha yes, wow. They are something," Lindsey answered.

"As a purveyor of some of the smuttier corners of the internet," Bailey said, catching a bemused look from Cara, "I'm wondering if they have a WAM fetish. It's pretty damn weird to drop $750 apiece on a weekend to just mess around, literally, but it would explain why they didn't seem to take the game terribly seriously."

"What's a WAM fetish?" Lindsey asked, looking confused.

Cal cringed inwardly, he was acutely aware of what WAM meant. He didn't think he had a fetish per se, but he definitely enjoyed the genre. He was mainly here to compete, but the possibility of getting disgustingly dirty, and more importantly, seeing women getting disgustingly dirty, wasn't exactly a negative for him.

"It means wet and messy," Bailey answered, "It's basically getting dirty with all kinds of things intentionally because it turns you on..."

She trailed off as the guys from Team 1 descended from upstairs. They looked angry. They didn't offer a greeting as they walked to the refrigerator and grabbed beers.

Lindsey and Cal exchanged awkward looks with Bailey and Cara but they didn't say anything and all four went back to their phones.

The presumably happy couple - Stefan and Annie - came down a few minutes later, looking content.

Pierre and Laurie arrived soon after that. "Alright gang, here's the results of game 1," Laurie burst through the door and started speaking, drawing everyone' s attention. "Team 2 got first, closely followed by Team 4. Team 3 just got done ahead of Team 1. We'll keep updated scores on this whiteboard," she gestured to one next to the front door. Pierre began adding the scores. Laurie explained that first place earned three points, second two, third one, and fourth got none in each game.

"Our first game tomorrow is admittedly the most complex one we have, and the rules explanation is correspondingly long. That's why we do it first on Day 2 and give you all the night to think it over. We call this game 'Assassination,' in each round one team will play the assassins and try to 'kill' the high value target or HVT. The assassination team will pick one of the other six contestants to be the HVT. The HVT will wear white clothes we provide. Since we obviously are not going to be killing anybody you 'damage' the HVT by getting them dirty. As is our tradition, we will not be equipping you with any weapons, but let me be clear, you cannot 'produce' weapons from your bodies or use animal scat you find - no bodily substances, either human or animal may be used." Cal wondered if that had ever actually happened. It sounded gross.

Lindsey was already beginning to process the game's parameters and asked: "so it'll be 2 against 5 in each round, how can we expected to ever have a shot?"

"Fair question," Pierre responded, "You have the element of surprise, but we have found over the years that 5 vs. 2 is a bit too difficult. So, in order to limit the defenders, 4 of the 5 defenders will be tied together at the waist to limit mobility. The one free defender is the HVT's partner and referred to as the 'personal protector'. Each of the defenders is also required to wear a padded foam suit we'll provide that prevents any injury if you collide with an assassin, although to be clear, no direct striking is allowed at any time. While this is a physical competition we do not want violence. The suits will moderately inhibit your ability to move but not too much."

Cal thought through this, it meant that whoever they picked as their target, that person's partner would be the toughest defender.

"So to review, if hypothetically Pierre and I were the assassins," Laurie said, "we might pick Dillon to be the HVT. That would make Tommy the personal protector and the rest of you would be bound at the waist to your partner. And yes, we could win 2 vs. 7 because we are awesome," she laughed. "Final thing about the contestants: the HVT cannot defend themselves in any way and they cannot run. They must walk at a normal pace along the route and trust their defenders. If you deviate from this we will automatically disqualify you."

"Alright," Pierre stepped in again, "I'm sure you are all wondering where this will all be happening. The HVT will begin in the main field, near the finishing crates from today, and walk along a path to the old camp's rifle range. It's about a mile so it will take about 15 minutes at a typical pace. You have from now until sunset to go check out the area, we've marked the start and finish with bright green signs. The path is marked by green blazes on the trees."

"As a result of Team 2's victory today they get to pick which spot in the order they want," Laurie continued. "Team 2 once you've decided please mark the whiteboard, Team 4 you get second pick and Team 3 you get third. The game begins at 5 AM so the first team will have some amount of darkness to help them, but obviously the last team to go knows what they need to do in terms of damage in order to win. Speaking of which we should be clear, water does count, but other stains, like grass stains count double to simply being wet. Pierre and I are the judges, our decision is final. The course is now open for inspection, it will be open until we start the competition. However I want to be very clear on this point: if you attempt to bring any outside substances into the game you will be instantly disqualified, and we know very well what is in that area."

There were murmurs from the contestants but they all soon began to funnel towards the front door to go check out the competition area. It was late in the day and there wasn't too much time before sunset.

Cal and Lindsey arrived at the start point and observed the ground. The path was really more of a dirt road; two metres wide and mostly wood chipped, perhaps a main path in the camp's previous iteration. The path was in a wooded area, but the underbrush was pretty minimal until you were about 100 yards off the path, it was a forest without plants in an odd way, likely a byproduct of it being a camp. There were probably dozens of tents set up in these areas ten years ago. Along the path there were three obvious choke points - bridges. The first seemed pretty innocuous, it was over a natural dry gully that a pipe of some sort ran through. Not much potential ammo.

The second was over a creek. It was difficult to tell but the creek was flowing decently fast with brown water, perhaps it was waist deep? There was also an area about 20 feet off the trail where the creek appeared to sometimes overflow, creating a muddy area. It was the first thing that Cal noticed to really get their target dirty, but there was nothing to hide behind anywhere around it, so using it might be difficult.

The third bridge was over a dry creek bed that was lush with vegetation, but seemed too dry for any mud.

"So any ideas?" Lindsey asked, making sure no other teams could hear.

"Well nothing super insightful, the bridges are the obvious places to attack so, I'm thinking we should see if we can create some sort of diversion instead of just using them," Cal replied. "The mud is obviously interesting but it's so far from the trail, I can't think of a way to use it effectively. It's hard to envision how we could maneuver around 5 others and snatch someone off the trail and get them to the mud to do damage."

Lindsey nodded in agreement and they began searching the areas further out from the path.

"Hey, hold up," Cal said urgently, noting something potentially important.

Lindsey looked back at him with concern.

"Pretend we're just talking," he said cryptically, thinking about the other teams around "but look over my right shoulder. I think I saw paint cans in that little shack, do they say anything you can read?"

"Yes! Nice job Cal!" Lindesey shout-whispered, "They're old, but I'm pretty sure they say black paint on the labels. Let's keep walking before anyone notices us chatting here."

They kept walking for about an hour, surveying every yard of terrain that might be important and headed back to the lodge. Once again, Cara and Bailey were the only ones around, eating a pasta dinner this time. They ladies motioned for Lindsey and Cal to join them.

"We made some simple spaghetti with sauce," Bailey said, "please feel free to grab some from the pot if you like. We opened a bottle of red as well if you'd like a glass."

"Thank you, that's really nice of y'all," Cal said genially.

Lindsey and Cal made plates and grabbed glasses of wine then joined the girls. They chatted about their backgrounds - it turned out Cara and Bailey were soccer players too, although they'd actually played in college. Cal was starting to really enjoy their company, it seemed like Lindsey was too.

After a bit Bailey asked, "So do you know which spot you'll take tomorrow? I honestly have no idea which way to go."

"Uhhhh, great question," Lindsey answered, "would you mind if we retired to our room to strategize?" she said. Her grin made it obvious she was excited to start planning.

"Yeah no problem, excited to see what you come up with after today," Cara answered, grinning herself. "Seems like you two may be our stiffest competition."

Cal and Lindsey got up and dropped their plates in the dishwasher. Lindsey grabbed a Coke out of the refrigerator, earning a weird look from Cal. He grabbed one of his own anyway, not sure why they would drink caffeine this late. Lindsey turned to the liquor cabinet and made herself a strong bourbon and coke. Cal followed suit, now understanding. 'My kind of girl he thought' and they headed to their room.

"So keeping in mind we need to QUIETLY discuss our plans," she said, jokingly referring to Annie and Stefan's earlier antics, "what do you think?"

"Well, this is obviously a tough decision," Cal said, his voice barely above a whisper, "but I think we should go last. The early start has the advantage of being at twilight, but if we go last we know exactly what we have to do to win and we can do something unexpected that they won't see coming. The other big advantage it gives us is that we'll see what tactics other teams use, and nobody can steal whatever idea we come up...speaking of, any more brilliant ideas today?"

"I think so, maybe anyway," Lindsey replied, "I agree with you on last, I'll go mark the white board so the other teams can get their picks in then let's hash this out."

------------------------D1S9-------------------------------- (L)


Lindsey went downstairs and marked them down for Slot 4 on the board and waved to the ladies from Team 4, they seemed really cool. Her plan crystallized in her brain with the extra minute to think. She felt herself blushing again, thinking about her proposal. 'Oh well, at least this time I won't be exposing myself' she thought. The bourbon gave her a bit of extra courage.

"Alright," she said, returning to the room and closing the door, "just to be safe let's turn the shower on so nobody can hear us planning." They walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, the whole scenario felt bizarre to both - having drinks in the bathroom with the shower running - especially with their damp underwear laying around.

"I like your idea of creating a diversion. So I'm thinking we attack at the first bridge using the black paint you found. Everyone will assume that's our main attack; we're using a substance that's really valuable and I bet we'll be the only team to attack at the worst spot for an attack. They'll think we're being creative after the rep we earned today. Assuming we don't get incredibly lucky with the attack, we run off in the same direction shouting to each other about a back up plan. I think there's a pretty high chance at least one pair will pursue to keep themselves between us and the HVT. If we're lucky maybe both pairs do."

Lindsey felt anxious about this next part, she felt herself getting flush again, but Cal smiled encouragingly, which helped.

"Ok," she continued, "so something you don't know about me yet is I'm actually a pretty strong swimmer. I'm not sure if you noticed, but if we run towards the undergrowth away from the camp the stream is somewhat close to the first bridge, then angles up to where bridge two crosses it. I'm pretty sure if I can slip into the stream without anybody noticing I can get to the second bridge underwater without needing to come up for air so nobody will notice. That would leave me one on one with the personal protector to get to the HVT. I think I can hide in the mud pit and use that to attack them and hopefully win."

Cal pondered this, trying to be objective. The idea of Lindsey swimming in the dirty creek and hiding in the mud pit was rather enticing, but he was serious about trying to win.

"I think it's a good plan overall, I see a couple weaknesses," he said. "The first is that everything is contingent on most of them pursuing us, if they just stick to the trail we're screwed. The second is, we don't know how much damage the first three teams will do, just throwing some mud at the HVT may not be enough to win. The last thing, and not trying to be weird here, is that you are going to have to get absolutely covered in mud to avoid detection. Are you sure you're ok doing that?"

Lindsey cringed a bit internally, "Yep, I'm aware of that," she said, looking downcast. "Good news is I do have black leggings and a black shirt I can wear, so that will help."

"Ok nice, good day to be a brunette I guess," Cal added.

"Haha yeah, blonde would not be ideal for this," Lindsey agreed. "Hey! Idea for your first point about keeping them distracted. I have this bright orange pair of running shorts," she said as she walked out to the main room and returned with the shorts. "Considering I'm wearing a black outfit when we launch our diversionary attack they will be incredibly obvious. I could quickly take them off and give them to you to wear while you are distracting them."

"That's a really good idea, if I can stay far enough ahead of them, a little flash of orange will convince them you're with me. Obviously I can yell so they'll know I'm up there. I have some green shorts and a brown shirt I can use, kind of camo like...uh, will I fit in those?" Cal realized the shorts looked a bit small for him.

"Here give them a try," Lindsey said, tossing him the shorts.

Cal awkwardly put them on over the gym shorts he was wearing, they were certainly on the tight side, digging into his butt and outlining his package a bit more than he probably felt comfortable with.

Lindsey was both amused and interested by this, seeing Cal's parts a bit more defined reminded Lindsey that she did think he was a pretty cute guy beyond just his obvious good qualities as a teammate. She could admit to herself that she was crushing on this guy a bit. He was really fun to talk to, treated her well and was reasonably attractive. She had a rule about not sleeping with guys on first dates, but if this were a date she would've been tempted. However, it wasn't and she was not about to jeopardize their team dynamic. Maybe after the camp was over they would stay in touch and see where things went.

"Well this isn't exactly comfortable, but I can hardly complain about wearing tight shorts when you were running around in a thong today and offering to get covered in mud tomorrow, I'll live," he said. "We're here to win."

"Ok so the other thing, what if mud isn't enough, any ideas?," Lindsey asked.

"Yeah, actually," Cal answered, "so there were 3 cans of black paint, right? We should have a couple minutes of prep time before our round, let's pre-position it under the bridge and you can also have that available. The other is, let's pick Annie as our HVT. She can't be more than 110-120 pounds, I bet you're strong enough to basically carry her to the mud pit. Stefan doesn't seem like the most coordinated or aggressive guy, I bet you can dodge him and potentially grab her. That gives you a lot of options assuming we are successful in distracting the other two teams."

Lindsey pondered his ideas, quickly realizing they made a lot of sense. She responded, "Good thinking, I like it. I think we have a solid plan. Anything else we're missing?"

Cal thought it over. "Nope, I think this is good. It's a complex plan but I think it has the right mix of cunning and simplicity. We'll have to work hard but I think we're both in good shape. We'll probably have to change some things based on what we learn tomorrow as we go through the rounds - we need to take advantage of that, knowing what other teams attempt - but I feel good about our plan. Nightcap?" he inquired, raising his empty glass.

"Yes please, just an old fashioned for me if they have the stuff, otherwise straight is fine, we have an early wake up call tomorrow."

-----------------------------D1S10------------------- (C)

"Be right back," Cal said. He grabbed their glasses and headed down to the lounge. The guys from Team 1, Tommy and Dillon, were sitting at the kitchen island drinking beers.

"Hey guys," Cal said, rummaging in the fridge for an orange. He found one and searched for the other ingredients in the liquor cabinet.

"Hey man," Tommy said morosely with a slight lilt in his voice, clearly these two had been enjoying a few beers tonight. "Congrats on your win today, you guys really out thought us. Can't believe you got your girl to take her pants off so fast."

"It was her idea, actually," Cal pointed out, "we only just met but we both decided we are here to win at all costs." He bristled a bit at their insinuations about Lindsey but tried to keep his tone neutral.

"Yeah, fair play bro, it was a smart idea, y'all played well," Dillon interjected. "Honestly we thought we were in such top shape we could come here and just dominate. We definitely need to think more strategically in order to win. In retrospect, just sprinting back and forth with like 5 balloons apiece was so dumb."

"Thanks dude, keep in mind it's just one round, still plenty of time to get back in it." Cal tried to be diplomatic as he finished making his drinks.

Taking notice of the amber colored liquor and orange peels, Tommy interceded "Eh, hoping to get your lady liquored up for a little fun eh?"

Cal was taken aback, "Uh don't think so, we just met a few hours ago. Just trying to be polite." He began walking towards the stairs.

Tommy turned on his stool and said "Alright man, good luck tomorrow...and tonight," he said with an exaggerated wink.

'What an asshole,' Cal thought to himself as he climbed the stairs. Arriving back in his shared room he handed Lindsey her drink. There wasn't really a comfortable place to sit in the room and after relaying the crass conversation he had just had with Tommy and Dillon, neither wanted to go downstairs even though the couches would have been far more comfortable. They ended up perched at opposite ends of the bottom bunk. It was oddly intimate, sort of like sitting together in a tent. Cal felt a warmth in him, some combo of the high of victory, camaraderie with his new friend, and the effects of the drink.

They discussed how nervous that they had both been about the camp, and how glad they felt they had stuck it out and come. Then they discussed the first game and if they could have done something differently. They talked about their competition - how weird Annie and Stefan were, how much they liked Bailey and Cara, and how dumb Dillon and Tommy were. Cal was tempted to initiate some kind of physical contact, even just a cuddle, but he was afraid it might upset the friendly dynamic. Before it got too late their long days began to catch up and they agreed it was time for bed. Lindsey elected to take the bottom bunk, so Cal climbed the ladder to the top one.

Cal really enjoyed getting to know Lindsey better, he felt like even if they hadn't been thrust together by the unique dynamics of the camp she would be the type of person he would have been friends with. He thought about the last time he had slept in a bunkbed, trying to remember if he had since college. He was asleep before he ever reached a conclusion.

-------------Day 2 - Scen 1---------------- (L)

Day 2 necessarily started before dawn, with alarms going off at 4:30. The first thing Lindsey noticed was that it had rained the night before.

"Nice, it rained overnight, that will make the creek a bit deeper and the mud should be nice and soft to hide in," Cal said as he climbed down from the upper bunk.

Lindsey, not exactly a morning person anyway and knowing she was likely to end up covered in mud soon, replied with a less than enthusiastic "Great," before heading to the bathroom to change into her outfit and do her morning routine.

Cal followed suit once she was done and they headed for the start. They noticed on the whiteboard as they passed the order of the teams for the day was 3, 1, 4, 2. So their friends Cara and Bailey had decided to go third. The married couple were going to lead off and use darkness, leaving the men with the second slot.

"Shit, I forgot about our clothes on the porch, those won't be dry anytime soon," Lindsey lamented as they exited the cabin.

"At least our underwear upstairs should be dry," Cal offered.

"Are you always this positive in the morning? I'm not sure I'm a fan," Lindsey replied in a tone that was half joking, half still actually grumpy.

After all the teams were assembled for the start, Pierre took the lead on explaining the day's first challenge by reviewing the rules from last night. Team 3 selected Bailey as the HVT and the organizers gave her a loose fitting pair of white pants and flowing long sleeve shirt that appeared to be made of some sort of cheap linen-type fabric to wear, and directed her to change in the old shower building near the start. Everyone else except Cara was given a padded suit, which were black and resembled wetsuits with some extra padding built in. As Laurie had explained it made it a little harder to move around but not too much. Lindsey guessed she could run about three quarters as fast as she could in normal clothes. Next came the rope tying together the teammates from Teams 1 and 2. Laurie explained: "The bindings are not actually rope, just strips of nylon, they're decently durable but will break if you try to clothesline someone or do something stupid. Breaking your bond means automatic disqualification for your team from this round so don't push it."

Once Bailey returned in her white outfit her five defenders created a quick plan: the guys from Team 1 would walk in front since they were the most physically imposing and likely to have the first encounter, Cal and Lindsey would follow behind Bailey in case there was an attack from the rear and Cara would be the last line of defense as needed.

"Hey, did anybody notice what they are wearing?," Dillon asked. "So Tommy and I know what colors to be searching for."

The group looked at each other with a bit of an 'oh shit' look. Clearly nobody had really taken notice in the early morning twilight. Lindsey did have to give props to Dillon to see him actually thinking beyond basics though.

"I think it was just dark colors, like navy blue and black?" Cara offered, clearly not confident.

Deciding to simply do their best they set off, as expected they passed the first bridge without incident. Lindsey felt the tension building as they approached the second bridge, the most likely spot for an ambush. To the group's surprise, they crossed it without being attacked. They were 30 meters further down the trail when all of a sudden they heard movement in the creek behind them. Lindsey and Cal whirled around, and saw Annie and Stefan emerge over the bank of the creek. It was hard to see in the low light but at least Annie seemed to once again down to her underwear. Their body language suggested THEY had been taken by surprise. 'How was that even possible,' Lindsey wondered, 'what else could they possibly have been doing?'

Cal and Lindsey quickly moved to put themselves between the attackers and were joined by Cara. They shouted for Bailey to keep moving and for the guys to protect her. Stefan wound up and threw something, before anybody could react it splattered against Bailey, muddying her thigh.

Suddenly it all clicked into place for Lindsey, she yelled "They put their clothes in the mud pit, they're throwing their clothes!" Annie's aim was not as good as her husband's and her first throw missed. Cara seemed to recognize she could defend more effectively next to Bailey and moved to stand directly behind her partner's retreating form. Lindsey tried to channel her latent goalkeeping skills and was able to grab the second thing Stefan threw, which she quickly realized were pants as she dropped them.

Cal was able to stretch and deflect Annie's second garment, Lindsey thought maybe it was a shirt. "Remember to be careful moving too abruptly so we don't break the binding," he reminded Lindsey.

Stefan launched another garment, using a higher arcing throw this time, it sailed over Lindsey and Cal. Luckily Cara was able to make a last second interception although a few drops did splatter Bailey's back. Simultaneously, Annie fired again and Cal couldn't react quick enough, but Annie's aim was still poor and he was hit in the cheek by a small garment. It left a small muddy patch on his suit and he quickly tossed it away.

Lindsey intercepted Stefan's next throw and quickly dropped what she realized was a purple bralette. 'Why the hell does Stefan have a bralette?,' she thought to herself. Team 3 kept firing 5 or 6 more times, trying to move side to side to change angles, but Bailey was getting farther away and Lindsey and Cal had found a rhythm and were able to intercept most of the tosses. Cara helped with a couple that got through. Stefan gave one last heave and Tommy grabbed it out of the air, the guys now having moved to position themselves between Bailey and the threat. Realizing he was holding what had once been a hot pink pair of bikini panties he wolf whistled and mimed pocketing them.

"Team 1 keep moving with Bailey, we'll watch them to see if they try again and shout if they do. Cara, gather the clothes by Bailey so they can't attack again and we'll do the same," Cal shouted. Lindsey was impressed by his commanding tone. Bailey and her 3 cohorts followed his direction and kept moving, Cara with a handful of muddy clothing. Lindsey and Cal gathered the muddy clothes they'd intercepted and stood on them to prevent Stefan and Annie from reloading for round two. The couple initially rushed around trying to regather clothes but quickly realized the futility as their target moved away and their opponents gathered most of their ammo.

"Alright, can we have our clothes back? We surrender," Annie asked, realizing the futility of their circumstances.

Cal and Lindsey stepped away from the pile they were standing on.

"How the heck did you get so many clothes out here?" Cal asked.

"Oh we just wore all the underwear we brought with us and got it dirty in the mud pit during our prep time along with our pants and shirts. It was great fun," Annie said with a knowing look at Stefan.

"So literally every piece of underwear you brought is now covered in mud or on you and soaked?" Lindsey asked, gesturing. It was getting a bit lighter out now that the sun was coming up. Annie was wearing a matching emerald green bra and panty set, obviously soaked from the creek. Stefan was wearing dark blue briefs. "You guys know you are crazy, right?"

"Yep!" Annie replied enthusiastically. They took their clothes to the creek and rinsed them out as best they could in the brown water and got re-dressed, giggling at the absurdity of wearing so many pairs of underwear. Lindsey noticed that now that she looked carefully both looked as if they were wearing diapers under their pants. She mentally scolded herself for overlooking that detail at the start.

The four of them headed up the path to the finish and met everybody else. Laurie and Pierre evaluated Bailey's condition; the back of her right leg was streaked with mud from her butt to her calf, there were a few drops of dirty water splattered across her back. Noting that but not offering any commentary, Laurie asked who Team 1 had selected to be the HVT.

------------------------D2S2------------------(L)

To the group's surprise they picked Lindsey. This really put the pressure on Cal as the last line of defense. Lindsey, Annie, and Stefan headed to the showers to change and rinse off. Lindsey returned a few minutes later wearing a fresh white outfit.

"I think they are going to be a few more minutes, they're...deepening their marriage again," she sighed with annoyance. Literally fucking around would give them no time to plot a defense with the whole group. The quartet from Teams 2 and 4 decided on a simple triangle formation with the ladies from Team 4 leading and Cal at the back to cover for whatever the hell Team 3 contributed, if they even participated. Annie and Stefan showed up just as Pierre gave the signal to begin the round and fell into place behind the group.

Once again the first half of the course was uneventful, as the group began crossing the second bridge all hell broke loose. Stefan gave a warning shout and Cal turned to see Tommy running at them from behind at full speed. Stefan and Annie positioned themselves as shields, but Tommy cleverly pushed Annie to the side, she stumbled, pulling Stefan in her direction so he was largely out of position. Cal stepped to block his route to Lindsey. Lindsey could feel the determination radiating off him; he was not letting this douchebag lay a hand on her. Channeling the American football player he never was, Cal lowered his shoulder and tackled the larger man to the ground. Stefan quickly scampered over with Annie in tow to help hold him down, eliminating the threat.

Lindsey watched the scuffle behind her unfold looking over her shoulder but had no choice but to trust her teammate and keep walking. Suddenly she sensed a presence to her right and to her shock looked over to find Dillon pulling himself over the side of the bridge. Before she, or more relevantly the other ladies, could react he was on the bridge. He grabbed her and tossed her into the creek. 'Oh my gosh, that guy has been hanging from the side of the bridge for at least 5 minutes, that's damned impressive' she thought...and then shrieked in surprise. 'Holy cow this is cold,' she thought as she completely submerged. She quickly stood and realized the creek was about chest height here. 'At least I learned something,' she thought to herself.

Cal heard something behind him and turned to see what the commotion was. He felt his heart drop as he saw Lindsey get tossed into the creek. Luckily the other ladies quickly grabbed a whooping Dillon, pinning him to the rail before he could do any more.

"I'm good, I'm good," he shouted, "we give up, I think that's a win for us!"

Everyone let off Tommy and Dillon. The two did some sort of weird high five bro thing Lindsey didn't understand. Lindsey climbed the bank of the creek and Cal offered her a hand, they were careful to ensure she didn't get any mud on her and make her state worse; a new bar had been set for this game and she didn't want to raise it. Her white outfit was now pretty much transparent. Lindsey imagined the black sports bra and black panties to complement her planned outfit for the game were on full display.

Laurie swiftly announced that Team 1 was now in first, completely soaking the HVT clearly beating out Team 3's effort which had left Bailey with only a bit of mud on her leg. Everyone headed back to prep for Round 3.

"What the heck happened, where did Dillon come from?" Cal asked, frustrated.

"I heard the scuffle behind me but had no choice but to keep walking," Lindsey explained. "Suddenly I look over and find Dillon pulling himself over the side of the bridge. Before any of us could react, he grabbed me and tossed me into the creek."

"I did find out the water is about chest deep, unfortunately also very cold," Lindsey whispered to him. At least they had learned something from the debacle.

Team 4, Cara and Bailey, selected Stefan as their HVT. Lindsey thought it was an interesting choice - they both took away a sizable defender and made the personal protector the smallest of the group. She quickly swapped her saturated white HVT outfit for her dry clothes and donned a padded defender outfit before rejoining the rest of the group.

--------------------D2S3------------------(C)

The defenders created a basic strategy to protect Stefan. Hoping to throw off Team 4, they sent Annie ahead as a sort of scout instead of using her as the last line of defense. The rest of them formed a diamond formation around Stefan with Tommy and Dillon front and right, while Cal and Lindsey were left and rear.

Like previous rounds the group advanced past the first bridge with no sight of the assassins, and to their surprise passed the second bridge as well.

Cal wondered where Annie was as they approached the third, and final, bridge. They hadn't heard from her in several minutes and she was out of sight up the trail.

Suddenly he noticed Cara lurking in the trees in his area of responsibility! "I see one," he shouted pointing towards her.

Everybody looked towards where he pointed, unfortunately for them, Bailey used that moment to pop out from under the bridge and attack. She aimed high, shooting projectiles like a basketball player so nobody could intercept them and landed two hits on Stefan. One was on his upper chest and the second hit his shoulder. Cal quickly realized that the girls had thrown their mud covered underwear, imitating Team 3.

Dillon and Tommy quickly moved between Bailey and Stefan to prevent any more attacks, but she retreated. The guys hopped down to the creek bed to pursue the blonde. Cara, in an impressive showing of athleticism, leapt the width of the creek, she was now on the side Team 1 had abandoned to pursue Bailey. Before Team 2 could get across to help she pushed Stefan off the bridge into the creek bed. The gangly man stumbled and rolled down the embankment. When he stood, much of the back of his shirt and seat of his pants was grass stained.

"We surrender," Cara shouted, clearly pleased with herself, "that was all we had in our bag of tricks."

Laurie evaluated Stefan's condition, "Well the amount of mud on him certainly exceeds what Team 3 was able to do, and the grass stains make it close but he's at least half clean, so Team 1 getting the HVT completely soaked still takes the day. The order going into the last round is Team 1 - 1st, Team 4 - 2nd, Team 3 - 3rd. Good luck to Team 2!"

Just then Annie sauntered up. "Ohhhhh, honey did you let yourself get hit with other girls' nasty muddy panties?" she asked Stefan. "That's very very naughty."

Cal quickly realized how she knew that...she found what Bailey was up to as she scouted ahead but decided to let it play out. She had sabotaged her own team's chances to indulge her fetish. That was decidedly not cool. Bailey and Cara sheepishly collected their dirty underwear. One glance at Lindsey and he could tell she was incensed.

"She will be our HVT," she stated frostily pointing at Annie then turned to walk away. Cal followed her.

-------------D2S4-------------------------(L)


Cal and Lindsey removed their padded suits and gave them to Pierre, it felt nice to be back in normal athletic clothes, it was starting to get pretty warm now that the sun was fully up.

"I can't fucking believe her, if they want to not take this game seriously, fine whatever, but now they're hurting our chances. It's ridiculous," she said once they were out of earshot from the rest of the group.

"I know, I agree, it's BS. But we need to get focused now, because we can win this if we execute," Cal pointed out. "So what do you think about tweaks to our original plan? Throwing underwear seems to be in vogue," he said with an awkward laugh, "are you real attached to yours?"

"Aside from the awkwardness of everyone knowing I'm running around commando I guess not. If Cara and Bailey can I don't see why I can't. As pissed as I am at Annie right now I have to admit it's a solid strategy in the circumstances," Lindsey said.

"The one concern I have is that if we use up ours they might think it's our main attack, not buy we have a back up plan and not give chase," Cal reasoned.

"That's a really good point, they know we have a finite amount of ammo since we can't go back to the main house. If we use it all up they won't think we're a real threat later. Want to rock paper scissors for who has to?" Lindsey asked.

"That's ok, your part in this is way tougher and messier, I can at least volunteer to do this."

"Thanks," Lindsey answered with an appreciative smile and turned her back to Cal to give him a moment to strip.

Once he'd removed his underwear and put his shorts back on they retrieved the cans of paint and positioned one at the side of the creek under the second bridge as they'd planned. They walked back to the first bridge and popped open their remaining cans of paint. Cal reluctantly dipped his boxers into it, unlike the clothes from yesterday, these would not survive.

"Ready for this?," Cal asked.

"Yep, let's get it," Lindsey replied. They bumped fists and set off for their starting positions. They would come from opposite directions but retreat in the same one.

-------------D2S5-------------------------(C)

Cal crouched in anticipation, hiding behind a large tree. They had agreed that they would attack either as soon as they were spotted or when Annie was halfway across bridge one, whichever came first. Cal quickly realized one thing they hadn't thought about was that carrying a projectile - his boxers - and a can of paint wasn't actually all that simple. He decided he would throw his projectile first then hope to get lucky with the can although it was likely the defenders would prevent him getting close enough.

To his surprise they remained undetected until Annie was halfway across the bridge, and he launched himself from cover. He was about 20 yards from the trail so the defenders would only have a few seconds to react. Tommy shouted a warning, the defenders had spotted Lindsey and her bright orange shorts first.

Lindsey put a fake move on Dillon, who was somewhat limited in his mobility anyway, and created enough space to launch her can of paint at Annie like someone tossing the dishwater out of a bucket. She would have scored a direct hit but the rangy Stefan actually did something coordinated and used his considerable size to shield his wife from damage. Frustrated, Lindsey sprinted across the trail towards Cal's position.

Cal benefitted from the initial focus on Lindsey. Before Team 4 - Bailey and Cara - could really get in position he was able launch his boxers in a crumbled ball at Annie. Bailey was too short to intervene, but Cal lead his throw a bit too much and the paint only got on the front of Annie's thigh with a bit on her shin as the projectile garment slid off her.

Cal quickly switched his paint bucket to two hands and tried to launch the paint out, but knew realistically he was too far away. Cara made sure by grazing his lead arm as he threw, throwing off his aim, although she got the front of her suit covered in paint for her efforts.

Cal stumbled and turned to run, off balance from his disrupted throw. Bailey recognized his vulnerability and dived to trip him with her left arm. Cal fell face first into the soft ground, but quickly realized the danger of being trapped and rolled to his right before Bailey and Cara could pounce. The women tried to grab him but his timely roll put him just out of their reach. He rose up and raced after Lindsey, who was now ahead of him as she ran away from the first encounter.

"Backup plan, backup plan!!!" Lindsey yelled, trying to sell their story.

Once he regained his breath Cal shouted a reply, "GO GO GO, get to the secondary stash!!!" He thought he sounded kind of stupid, but hopefully the other teams bought it.

After a short but intense sprint Cal and Lindsey reached the creek where it entered the undergrowth around the edge of the old scout camp. They proceeded a few metres into the underbrush.

"We're good," Lindsey said, she'd been slightly ahead of Cal and had a few seconds to observe behind them, "the girls and those douches are both following us, trying to cut us off."

She quickly stripped off her orange shorts and handed them to Cal, who put them on.

"You got this," Cal said, "the plan's working!"

-------------D2S6-------------------------(L)

Lindsey gave him a thumbs up and dived into the brown creek water. It was a bit warmer than when Dillon had launched her into the creek an hour ago, she noted. What she hadn't planned on was the fact she couldn't see anything because of the dirty water. She was forced to navigate based on when she encountered a muddy bank with her hands. She hoped she could still make it to the intercept point in time to get Annie.

Lindsey swam as far as she could before she needed to take a breath. She hoped it was far enough to be out of sight from everyone, then had a panicked thought she could have gone too far. Luckily when she surfaced she was only about 15 meters short of the bridge over the creek. She ducked back under water and quickly covered the remaining distance. Thinking about her next task she realized her light colored running shoes could be difficult to cover quickly, so she removed them and left them on the bank, grabbing the can of black paint they had left there previously.

Peeking around the corner of the bridge support down the trail she was happy to see nobody coming yet, plenty of time to execute the plan. She swam the short distance so she was adjacent to the muddy area they had planned to use, then crept across the ground to the mud pit. She could see where the other teams that had used this mud had already disturbed the surface. She used that loosened mud to bury the paint can deep enough so it wouldn't create an obvious silhouette and give her away.

Lindsey understood that if she was going to ambush Team 3 she had to thoroughly conceal herself in the mud. This was the less exciting part of her plan. Reminding herself of the emphasis on winning at all costs Lindsey dove into the muddy area on her front. The ground wasn't terribly soupy despite the rain so instead of the slip and slide experience she expected this was more a belly flop into wet dirt. Lindsey panicked slightly, since the mud wasn't that soupy covering herself wasn't going to be as easy as she hoped. She had expected that she could jump in and being totally covered in a few seconds of rolling around, but it wasn't going to be that simple. She glanced down the trail, still no sign of Stefan and Annie. 'Ok good' she thought and set about her task.

Sitting up slightly, she thrust her hand into the mud and quickly realized there was plenty of moisture below a thin surface layer of earth that had already begun to dry as the sun rose. She needed to churn up the mud to get the consistency that would allow her to get properly covered. She got up on hands and knees and began desperately kneading the earth, soon it looked like she was wearing brown evening gloves. Thinking about how she could speed this up she realized she could use her entire body as essentially a churn. She laid back down and began rolling over in place, churning up the mud until it began to wetly stick to her, soaking into her clothes and covering the skin of her arms. She took another look at the trail, still no sign of them.

She took stock of herself next, her chest and stomach were fairly thoroughly covered, that was a good start but not too important since she planned to lie prone before launching the ambush and her black clothing wouldn't be obvious anyway. Also covered were her pants down to below her knees. There was a gap between where her 3/4 length leggings ended and her socks where some white skin shown. She grabbed handfuls of mud and coated her lower legs. Her sock clad feet were actually still fairly clean because she had dived in head first and then just been rolling around. Not wanting to take any risks even with black socks she pushed them deep into the mud up to her ankle. It was a strange sensation feeling the wet mud seep into her socks but not totally unpleasant, she briefly thought of a spa.

Next up were her arms. The outsides were completely coated from her rolling but the insides were still clean and white - a potential giveaway to Stefan. She applied more mud until no skin was visible, being careful to get up the sleeves of her shirt in case it shifted to reveal a clean area. She had the amusing thought that this whole thing was like applying sunscreen. Applying to her arms had caused her shirt to ride up a bit, exposing a thin ribbon of white skin between her shirt and leggings. She quickly covered that, running a few fingers under her waistband and hem of her shirt to ensure full coverage if anything shifted. Realizing the bigger concern was her lower back she slapped mud there as well, again ensuring to make sure she got some below her waistband, but in her enthusiasm dropped bit more down the back of her pants than needed and it soaked into her panties above her bum. She wriggled in discomfort, which only pressed the mud further into her underwear. Admonishing herself to focus, she examined herself and couldn't find a clean patch of already black clothing or skin, she just hoped her back was the same. No way to tell, she'd have to risk it.

Next came the part she was truly disgusted by - all of this mess would be useless if her face and hair were obvious. First she plopped handfuls of mud on top of her head, rubbing it into her hair as if it was shampoo. Then she made sure her ponytail was thoroughly covered. She had considered skipping this step since her brown hair would have blended in reasonably well, but since she still had time she decided she should go all the way. She thought about letting her hair down, but decided the mud should keep the ponytail from looking like anything more than a clump of caked mud. Now that her hair was indistinguishable from the rest of this muck, her next task was her neck, which she quickly covered. Now it was time for the part she really hated, her face. Taking a deep breath she grabbed two handfuls of and covered her face and cheeks, sluicing off enough so she could comfortably open her eyes without getting mud in them.

Lindsey looked at herself one more time, she was thoroughly covered, she hoped, from head to toe. The mud in the area she'd churned up was shinier and wetter than when she started, she'd also created a bit of a narrow trough that actually had a small amount of water at the bottom. She lowered herself into this to conceal herself, the moisture soaked through her clothes into her bra, onto her stomach and into the crotch of her panties. She piled a bit extra onto her lower back and butt so they wouldn't create an unnatural silhouette. She began to relax a little, her revulsion at being covered in mud lessening as she got used to it. In some ways this felt good, kind of relaxing, kind of naughty getting herself all muddy. Plus she was wearing all black, this would all eventually wash off, she was fine she told herself and her heart rate began to steady. Focusing on the path she saw that Annie and Stefan were just coming into view. 'Perfect timing,' she thought and waited for them to get to the point where the path ran closest to the mud.

---------------D2S7--------------------- (C)

Meanwhile, Cal was battling through the undergrowth, now moving parallel to the main trail but partially out of sight in thick bushes and plants of the forest. He was trying to balance moving fast enough so that he eluded his pursuers with not moving too fast so they gave up on isolating them (actually just him) from the target. Having to wear Lindsey's too small shorts was a bit uncomfortable but actually helped somewhat since his otherwise loose gym shorts would have caught on more of the branches and thorns. "Keep going, I'm right behind you!," he shouted, hoping to keep up the ruse that Lindsey was with him.

Cal sensed it was time for him to begin angling back toward the action. They hadn't really figured out anything concrete about what to do if Lindsey's solo attack failed, but perhaps they could evade capture and figure out something on the fly. He turned towards the second bridge and kicked up his running pace from moderate to his fastest, now hoping to evade his pursuers rather than simply occupy them. Unfortunately he soon realized that was futile, they had done a good job of positioning themselves between him and the path and would be able to intercept him before he could make it to the bridge. He could see Annie and Stefan but they would get between him and them before he got within 50 yards. As the distances closed he considered swimming across the creek and trying to intercept on the far side, but worried that might cause them to just default back to staying with Annie before Lindsey could attack so he kept pushing the obviously bad angle. Just as Bailey and Cara got close enough to try to tackle him he put his hands up.

"I surrender, I surrender," he said to the quartet, "action's over there anyway." He gestured towards Annie. Just as he said that, someone rose from the mud pit. He assumed it must be Lindsey, it was the right height and build, but she was completely covered in mud. She sprinted towards the HVT.

"Damnit, Cal was just a distraction!" exclaimed Dillon. "Look out Stefan!" He pointed towards Mud Lindsey and he began sprinting towards the scene with the other defenders. Cal followed at a jog, eager to see how their plan played out.

Stefan did not appear to be paying a great deal of attention, more interested in bantering with Annie again, Cal assumed. He turned and tried to position himself to defend her. Lindsey had closed the short gap between the mud pit and the path at sprint speed, before Stefan could properly position himself she rammed into him, lowering her shoulder. Although he was much larger he was totally unprepared; she sent him sprawling. She quickly turned and threw the diminutive Annie over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. She moved as fast as she could back to the pit before anyone could catch her and unceremoniously flipped Annie off her shoulder and into the muddy furrow she'd dug earlier. Lindsey straddled Annie's waist and unceremoniously sat on her to pin her in place. She grabbed the paint can she had concealed and popped off the lid, then upended it over Annie's chest. She worked her way down over Annie's cleavage and onto the woman's stomach, turning the pristine white shirt pitch black. She didn't care that some got on her leggings.

Lindsey was about to turn her attention to Annie's pants when Laurie broke in.

---------------D2S8--------------------- (L)

"Alright, I think we have a pretty clear winner," the counselor said authoritatively, "between the paint and fact half her outfit is currently pressed into the mud Team 2 is the clear winner of this round."

Annie squirmed underneath Lindsey, both playing her role as the defenseless HVT and apparently enjoying getting completely covered in mess again.

Lindsey was elated at her victory, for a brief moment she enjoyed the feeling of a person writhing between her legs in this muck but quickly snapped out of it and began to rise.

"Awwww, why'd you stop?," Annie asked, "I can tell you were enjoying it too," she said in a whisper only Lindsey could hear.

Ignoring her, Lindsey leapt to her feet in jubilation. She raised her arms and unleashed a victory whoop. She had to laugh at her situation, here she was standing over a girl who was essentially a stranger, in a pool of mud, completely covered in muck and paint and not wearing shoes, yet she was as excited and happy as she could remember. What a strange camp this was.

"Awesome job, Linds! That was amazing," exclaimed a winded Cal as he arrived at the scene.

"Thanks there teammate," she replied in a mock drawl. "I'd give you a nice big hug but I'd prefer I had at least something to wear that was clean," she said, waving at her orange shorts he was wearing. She thought he looked pretty absurd with her way too small for him running shorts over his loose gym shorts. Then she realized she was completely covered in mud and laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all. She began scraping the worst of the thick mud off her covered form.

"Another impressive victory for Team 2, I don't believe we'll be re-using that uniform again Annie, do as you please," said Pierre. "Our next game will kick off at 11 AM outside the main building. We'll be heading into town for a nice spot of lunch at a lovely cafe, make sure you're looking your best," he continued with a devilish laugh.

The defenders began removing their foam suits and headed back towards the main building. Cal removed Lindsey's constricting shorts and looked relieved.

"Oh, dear husband," called Annie, now propped up on her elbows in the mud, "aren't you going to rescue me after you let that sexy lady get the better of you?"

Lindsey was a bit taken aback, being called sexy was nice but Annie's innuendo after her earlier comment made her feel a little odd. Overall she just didn't like this girl.

"I'm going to hop in the creek to wash the worst of this off and grab my shoes. I left them under the bridge, was worried I wouldn't be able to cover them well enough," she told Cal.

Lindsey plunged into the creek to get the worst of the mud off. She surfaced and was pleasantly surprised how much of the mud seemed to wash off her relatively easily. She rubbed her hands through her hair trying to get the worst of the mud out. She giggled internally a little; she was washing her hair again, only this time she wanted the mud out. She felt some stubborn dirt still in the depths of her crotch and her bra but overall she felt far less disgusting than she'd anticipated. It almost felt good in a strange way. She climbed out after a few minutes holding her shoes to at least keep them from getting dirty and asked Cal to hold them for her. She took off her black ankle socks and wrung them out then they began to head back to the main lodge.

"Heyyyy, you two ready to get over yourselves and have some fun?," called Annie. Cal and Lindsey turned their heads in surprise, Annie had not moved from where Lindsey had left her in the mud, but Stefan had stripped down to blue briefs and now knelt by her side. Annie's arms were cast wide, laying in the mud and the crotch of her pants was now completely caked in wet mud. It was pretty obvious Stefan had been manually stimulating her over her clothing.

"Stop pretending this doesn't turn you on, he practically walks around with a half chub all the time, he loves mess," Annie said looking at Cal, "and you should stop pretending you don't like it," she looked at Lindsey. "You don't get completely covered in mud just to win a silly game, plus I could feel you getting hot sitting with your pussy right above mine. I bet you jumped in that creek to cool yourself down, not to get clean. Just give in and come have some fun!"

Lindsey whirled away with a disgusted 'ugh' and the couple from Team 2 walked away. "That woman infuriates me," she said to Cal angrily. "I just don't understand her. She acts like this is some fucking sex camp. Fuck her...err well actually please don't. You know what I mean, haha." Lindsey could feel herself just getting madder. She was annoyed at Annie, but she was also embarrassed in a funny way, scared she was taking the game too seriously while it was no big deal for everyone else.

"Let's not let her ruin it for us, I'm having a great time with this competition and I think the other teams are playing to win. We shouldn't let them being weird lessen our enjoyment or shake our competitive spirit. Besides we're kicking ass! That's three points again for us, we're doing awesome. Let's not worry about those idiots and keep doing our thing, it's working out pretty damn well," Cal pointed out. Lindsey appreciated that he was not going to let the competitive spirit they were playing with slip away. It was nice to have a partner who supported her, and lessened her worries.

"Yeah you're right, I can't let her get under my skin. We're here to win, not psychoanalyze whatever the fuck is going on with those two."

"Exactly, and by the way props to you ma'am, our strategy put all the pressure on you, but you got it done. Oh, and by the way, it was mostly your plan as well. Two for two in the strategy department, Ms. Grainger, well played!"

"Awww, thanks Cal, I appreciate it. I won't lie, some of that was really disgusting. Having to get my hair all muddy and get it on my face was awful, but I just reminded myself of the ol' team motto," Lindsey grinned, and felt a surge of happy internal emotions. "The stupid thing is, I bet I didn't even need to be that careful, Stefan was barely even paying attention and you had the others too far away to do anything."

"Yeah, I don't envy you for sure having to get covered, but awesome work."

"Oh, and by the way, you deserve some credit too, mister. You played your decoy role perfectly so I could do my thing. I bet my little shorts probably weren't great either, we both got a little taste of embarrassment."

"No, they were not terribly comfortable, but they did actually make navigating the underbrush a bit easier in an odd way since they kept my shorts so tight to my body and they're nylon while my shorts are cotton, easier to not get caught on brambles. That said, pretty sure I prefer that to getting completely covered in mud, again great work!"

Lindsey smiled at him in appreciation and the pair continued to the main house discussing how much the foam defender suits sucked and reflecting on the other teams' approaches.

Arriving back at the main house, Lindsey left her shoes and socks on the porch to dry again. Cal checked the clothes they'd left out overnight and pronounced them still a bit damp. They headed up to the room.

Cal announced that Lindsey had more than earned first shower again. Lindsey was all for gender equality but readily agreed, she didn't want any of the mud still on her to dry any more. Unwilling to touch her bag in her disgusting state she requested Cal leave it by the shower door, which he did.

'Well time for another shower where I start fully clothed,' Lindsey thought to herself with amusement and waited for the water to warm up.

---------------D2S9--------------------- (C)

Lindsey emerged some time later, finally clean and wearing just a towel. Cal tried not to stare. She grabbed her bag and disappeared, reappearing a few minutes later wearing her red shirt/white shorts combo from last night. Cal was a little confused, they didn't seem like a great choice for this afternoon, but he didn't comment.

"Hey, could you do me a huge favor?," she asked.

"Of course," Cal answered.

"Would you mind taking my muddy clothes down to hang up on the porch and putting my underwear on the counter before you shower? Now that I'm clean I don't really want to touch them, they suddenly feel really gross."

"Yeah, no problem," Cal answered. He walked into the bathroom and quickly gathered her garments. He knew it was stupid, but there was something intimate about touching her underwear that she had not only been wearing but laying in the mud with just a few minutes ago. He felt the material of her panties, in particular, a bit more than was needed before laying them out on the counter, then took her leggings and shirt downstairs to hang on the porch railing and dry out.

Stefan and Annie were sauntering up just as he walked out the front door. He was still clad in just underwear although it looked damp. She was still wearing the destroyed HVT costume, which was both discolored, blackened by paint on the front, and semi-transparent, revealing she was still wearing the emerald green underwear from earlier. Cal surmised she'd taken a dip in the creek to wash off the worst of the paint and mud she'd been covered in. Both were carrying handfuls of clothes as well, Cal realized these were all the underwear they had muddied and used as missiles back in the first round.

"Shame you didn't stick around mate," Stefan said, "it was a great time after you left."

Cal was surprised to hear the normally quiet big man pipe up first for once.

"Yeah, I can tell you love getting dirty, why do you let that prude teammate prevent you from having fun?," Annie asked with a knowing smile. "Oh are you hanging up her clothes, that's gentlemanly of you. Wait, where are her underwear?," Annie asked with a frown, noting he only held a shirt and Lindsey's leggings.

"We've decided to dry ours in our bathroom," Cal answered, "we feel uncomfortable having our underwear on display for the whole camp." He felt his cheeks redden at this discussion but gave a pointed look at the clothes the couple were carrying.

"Awwww, your prude girlfriend is embarrassed to have her cute little panties on display?," Annie asked mockingly. "Is it because she always wears slutty little panties like her transparent yellow thong yesterday? Or is it because she loves feeeling like a dirty slut and goes commando? I bet those were her nasty paint-covered panties you threw at me!"

Cal was aghast that Annie, and presumably Stefan, had taken note of Lindsey's exposed condition yesterday in Round 1. He was also furious at how Annie was talking about Lindsey. Taking a deep breath to control his anger he coldly replied, "For your information, it was my underwear I hit you with. Please stop harassing us."

Stefan stepped in, his hands at waist height in a conciliatory gesture, "Ok ok, sorry mate, we mean no harm. Annie just has a sixth sense about these things and she thinks you enjoy getting down and dirty." He glanced at his wife with an amorous gaze, "We just want you to know that we are open to playing with others if that interests you...or Lindsey," he said with a wink. The married couple proceeded inside without another word, although once Stefan was through the door, Annie turned and pulled up her filthy white tunic then shook her boobs, still in the once green but now paint splattered bra, at Cal obscenely while sticking her tongue out.

Cal couldn't help but feel a bit of arousal. Annie was confident and extremely comfortable in her sexuality, which he found attractive. However, her behavior towards Lindsey was inexcusable and angered him, not to mention he wasn't quite sure if swinging was something he was open to; he'd never really thought about it. He also didn't respect how they were treating this competition, which he was really enjoying, as some sort of sex romp. He carefully hung Lindsey's clothes, which he'd been holding throughout the conversation, over the railing and headed inside.

Grabbing his bag and nodding at Lindsey he headed for the shower to wash off the sweat of his morning decoy run. He distracted himself from the strange anger/arousal he was feeling by thinking about Pierre's cryptic instructions for Round 3...'look your best'...what did that mean? Suddenly it dawned on him. The quaint nearby town was pretty much a highbrow tourist trap based on what he'd seen passing through. The sort of places where well to do couples from Nashville or Charlotte came for three day getaway weekends to relax...and fill their IG feed with picturesque posts. Perhaps the 'thinking' part of this challenge was they needed to meet the dress code at the restaurant. He had packed a few slightly nicer clothes thinking there might be some sort of awards ceremony or dinner or something; he dressed in khaki shorts and a pale blue polo shirt and exited the bathroom.

"Wow, aren't you looking fancy," Lindsey immediately commented when he exited the bathroom.

"So I had a shower thought," Cal replied. "You know how Pierre said it's a lunch in town and we need to 'look our best'? I think part of this challenge is we can't just roll up in our workout clothes and expect to be seated at a moderately nice restaurant, so I wore these."

"Nice, that makes total sense," Lindsey replied. "I hadn't thought about that, but I have a strong hunch you're exactly right now that you explain it. The nearest town is totally a bougie tourist trap and Pierre and Laurie seem to love leaving little clues like that. I brought a similar semi-formal outfit just in case there was something I needed it for, figured worst case it would just be my 'flight home' clothes. Give me 2 mins," she said, grabbing her bag and heading into the bathroom.

She emerged two minutes later wearing a pair of white capri pants and a loose fitting sleeveless lime green top. This top was a casual but attractive one, dressier than the sports tank top she wore yesterday.

"Hey Cal, so I need to ask you do something a little awkward, but at least we've had PLENTY of weird situations in the last 24 hours," Lindsey said. She turned around, bent over and touched her toes so her ass was facing Cal. "Can you see my underwear through these white pants?," she asked.

Cal pondered his response. The honest answer was that yes, he could. Her dark colored panties were pretty obviously visible through her white pants. But he couldn't help but consider not telling her. 'Ugh this must be Annie's influence' he thought to himself reproachfully.

"Um, yes I can, sorry. I think they're just a bit too dark colored," he replied.

"Darnit, ok, I know it's a stupid concern but I don't want to be kept out of the restaurant because of something stupid," Lindsey answered, "another minute." She grabbed her bag and disappeared into the bathroom again. Emerging once again she bent over, presenting her ass to Cal.

"How about now?" she asked.

Cal certainly had no complaints about once again having Lindsey's sexy ass presented and tried to remind himself she was just doing this for the sake of the game.

"Yep, those are fine, I can't see anything except your well rounded posterior," he said. He couldn't help but flirt a little.

"Awwwww, you say the nicest things," Lindsey replied with a sarcastic giggle. She turned around and blew a kiss at Cal.

"Shall we head down to the starting line?" he asked awkwardly, a bit embarrassed but happy about Lindsey's reaction.

"What do you think we should do about footwear?" Lindsey asked. "A lot of places won't let you in wearing trainers."

"I dunno," Cal said, "it seems like athletic shoes are kind of becoming a lot more acceptable now?"

"True, but I'm not sure it's a risk I want to take unless you don't have any options." She pulled a pair of silver flats from her bag, "I'm pretty sure I can run in these decently, at least jog."

"Alright fair enough, I have some loafers I can probably do about the same in," Cal said, grabbing them from his bag.

"Now are we ready to roll?" he asked.

"Let's do this!" she replied and they headed downstairs.

----------------D2S10--------------------- (L)

Once they got outside where Round 3 would start Lindsey observed the outfits the other teams were wearing, curious if anybody else shared their theory. It appeared Teams 1 and 4 did not, the guys were in green running shorts with white t-shirts. She didn't think that would get them very far if the restaurant had a dress code. The girls were in old looking black shorts, Cara in a burgundy running tank top and Bailey in grey.

Team 3, however, did seem to be thinking along the same lines as Cal. Stefan was neatly dressed in a pair of forest green trousers and a button down blue shirt while Annie wore a green sun dress with a yellow flowered pattern.

"Welcome to Round 3 everybody," Laurie shouted in that overenthusiastic voice she used that made her sound like a game show host. "Before I dive into the rules for this game, a quick review of the scores. Team 2 is perfect so far with 6 points from a possible 6. Team 4 is in second with 3 points, Team 1 is third with 2 and Team 3 is in last with 1...but at least they're having a great time," she deadpanned.

"As my dear husband alluded to, Round 3 will take us on our first, and only, adventure off the grounds of the camp. Your task is to head into the nearby town you likely all passed through on your way here, get a table at The Little Smoky and have an appetizer, then race back here. This one is simple, first team back takes maximum points and so on down the order."

"While The Little Smoky is actually a lovely place, we understand you'll all be in a rush," Pierre jumped in for this part of the explanation. "We have prepaid for each team with an amount comparable to a typical full 2 person meal, so the wait staff won't be short changed on tips and you won't have to worry about paying. You must simply request the 'Camp Special' and they will understand that you will not be paying the actual check and only want an appetizer. This will also level the playing field for all teams.

"Your only requirement is that you must clean your plate before leaving. We have asked the wait staff to let us know if anybody tries to skip that step, so please don't do it or you will be disqualified."

"We have a simple map, just a marked up screenshot from online maps to be honest, for each team," Laurie told them and handed out the printouts. "Good luck to everyone and we'll see you again soon."

Cal and Lindsey studied the map they'd been given. The obvious route marked on the map was about 6 miles, taking them several miles west from the camp back to the main road, a few miles up that and then east into town. Lindsey noticed that the town appeared to be much closer if you could go directly to it without following the road, perhaps a mile or two away. However that was directly north across what appeared to be fields of crops; not ideal considering their attire. Surely that fact was not lost on the organizers and this game was not meant to be a simple running contest.

"What do you think?" Lindsey asked, "I can't imagine us crossing all these fields, not to mention this creek," she pointed to a waterway running through the middle of the fields, "and being presentable enough to get seated if this place has any standards. I think if we are going to bet on that being a concern, the direct path isn't an option."

"What about this path?" Cal asked, noting a barely distinguishable trail that appeared to veer off the road the camp was on a short distance east from the camp before veering north and seemed to loop back to the town. It appeared it would only be about 2-3 miles and wouldn't have to pick their way across farmland trying to stay clean.

"Wow, good catch Cal," Lindsey quietly exclaimed. "If we go that route I'm pretty sure we can beat anybody who goes on that 'main' route to the south, and we'll work from the assumption that nobody is getting into the restaurant if they take the direct route across the fields. I like it."

"Alright then, ready to run?" Cal asked.

"Let's go" replied Lindsey.

The pair set off at a light jog. They noted with interest the other 3 teams turned west, the opposite of the way they were going, at the camp entrance and hoped their plan would pay off.

A few minutes later Cal surfaced another concern:

"Hey, so in our grand tradition of awkward conversations, I have another one," he said. "We figure it's probably at least another 20-30 minutes of jogging at this pace, there's no way I'm not going to be sweaty by the time we get there."

Lindsey quickly realized he had a really good point. She hadn't started to sweat but it was getting hot after a cool morning and the humidity from the overnight rain hadn't burned off despite the bright sunlight. That she and Cal were wearing casual clothes instead of athletic clothes designed to keep the wearer cool also didn't help.

"Uh so what do we then, just walk and try to stay cool?" she asked. "I guess if we really think this is the winning strategy, slow and steady it is right?"

"That seems really risky," Cal thought out loud, he was studying the map. "I have an idea that might be a compromise. See that creek we worried about crossing on the direct route??" He pointed to a spot on the map. "Where we cross it on the trail is near where it comes off the mountain and into this little valley the camp, town and farms are in. The water should be nice and clear, and fast moving after the rain last night. I bet it'll be crystal clear and we can give ourselves a quick rinse."

Lindsey considered his idea. If they were so concerned about getting their clothes sweaty there's a real easy solution to that, not wearing them, she thought luridly. Embarrassed at her internal monologue, she realized the issue would be looking hot and disheveled when they arrived. Any sweat on their clothes would dry after the walk from the creek.

"That sounds good," Lindsey said. "It's also far enough from the town that we can just walk for a few minutes and we'll dry quickly in this heat. Nicely spotted Cal, I would not have thought of that."

"Thanks, I try to spend a bit of time in the wilderness each year so that I know a little about these things," he explained.

"Very cool, city girl like me considers staying at a campground to be the wilderness," she replied with a self-deprecating laugh. "I guess we just need to keep an eye on each other's shirts to see if we sweat through. If we are we can slow down a little."

"Checking each other for sweat certainly tracks with our awkward situations trend!" Cal joked. Lindsey laughed.

The pair continued their jog and eventually arrived at the creek. As Cal had predicted it was beautifully clear water with a rocky bottom to the fast flowing stream.

----------------D2S11--------------------- (C)

Cal was quite hot and had definitely been sweating during their run. He was ready for the break and gratefully knelt at the bank of the stream, kicking off his loafers. He splashed some cool water on his face and neck to cool down. It felt great.

"Do I look more or less back to normal now instead of a guy who just ran a couple miles in loafers in this heat?" he asked Lindsey.

Lindsey looked him over. "Looking good, handsome," she said in a joking tone. "We'll just assume the pit stains will dry, eh?" She gestured to his armpits. Cal raised his arm and saw that, indeed, the light blue fabric was dark with sweat and scowled.

"Crap, I hope so," he said. He kept his arms raised, knowing that the sweat would dry quicker if exposed to more air. "Sorry to be gross, it'll dry faster this way."

"Ha, it's ok, I think we're well passed the stage of being grossed out. Plus, the first two games I was running around in my underwear and covered in mud. Only fair you have to do something a bit embarrassing," Lindsey pointed out, smiling. "How about me? Would you seat me at a restaurant?"

"With pleasure, ma'am," he answered, returning her smile. Like him, Lindsey had splashed some water on her face to freshen up, but otherwise looked as good as she had when they left.

Cal now focused on actually getting across the creek. The water seemed to be about waist deep and the stream was much too wide to jump over. He noticed some roughly flat rocks just below the surface of the water, when the stream wasn't so full they probably made good stepping stones. He looked up and down stream hoping there might be a fallen tree or other way across, but he didn't see any options.

He grabbed his shoes and carefully stepped onto the first rock. The water was about ankle deep. The second rock was a bit further of a step. The water also just barely covered it, which actually made it even more slippery. Recognizing the danger of slipping, he carefully planted his foot on the rock, making sure it wouldn't slip before transferring his full weight to it.

"Careful on these rocks," he advised Lindsey, "they're very slippery."

Lindsey followed his advice and tentatively stepped onto the first rock. Unfortunately Lindsey had never forded a stream like this and didn't realize just how slippery it could be. Her foot slipped as she stepped to the second rock and she was immediately off balance. Panicking, she tried to regain her balance but couldn't. She ungracefully controlled her fall into a seating position on the rock to avoid going in completely. Water lapped over her butt and the back of her legs.

"Damnit, I screwed us over," she yelled. Cal could tell she was stunned, she had fallen hard enough her butt probably hurt, but their bigger problem was that there was no way her pants would dry before they got to the restaurant.

"It's ok, we'll figure it out, don't make a bad situation worse," Cal said in a calming tone. "Get up nice and slow, get your feet back under you."

Cal helped her across successfully and soon they were on the opposite bank. Cal appraised the damage, Lindsey's white capri pants were completely soaked and transparent from the top of her ass to her knees. He could, once again, see her panties through them. She had switched to a white pair with little red strawberries on them. 'At least those are cute,' he mused.

"Sorry, I should have helped you across," he apologized.

"Darnit, if only I hadn't packed white pants," Lindsey said in frustration, "a dark color wouldn't even be noticeable."

Cal was torn on this, this was a setback to their plan, but the view was hard to complain about - Lindsey was sexy and the transparent pants turned him on. Fantasizing about walking behind her, suddenly he had a thought.

"I think we can get away with this. I'll just stand close behind to block anybody's view. We'll presumably be facing the hostess at the restaurant, the front of your outfit is dry, we just have to get from the entrance to the table without any of the other staff taking notice and saying something. Once you're seated we're fine," he explained his plan.

"Yes!" exclaimed Lindsey "That's brilliant, we'll act like a newlywed couple on a weekend getaway that is a little too publicly into each other. Heck, that's why most other people are in town, it should work.

"You sure are rolling with the good ideas in this game," she complimented him.

"Thanks, just trying to pull my weight in the problem solving department after you figured out how to win the first two," he said. He really appreciated her compliment. Having to get nice and close to her wasn't something he was complaining about either, though.

"Your comment about embarrassing situations seems to have come back to bite you though," Cal made light of the situation. Lindsey laughed loudly. Despite the awkward situations they really did seem to get along well.

----------------D2S12---------------- (L)

Cal and Lindsey arrived at the town after a short walk following the incident at the creek. Lindsey's pants dried a little but were still fairly transparent. They both were nervous, had their bet that getting here clean and neatly clothed paid off or would the other teams already be there. Or could they have even come and gone? There was no way to know.

Their first glance at the exterior of The Little Smoky seemed like a good omen, it looked upscale in a rustic sort of way. As soon as they entered Lindsey suspected they were in luck, the other diners were all dressed nicely, the tables were covered by white table cloths, and the staff wore black pants or skirts.

For a brief moment Lindsey worried that their clothes might not actually be fancy enough but quickly dismissed that, this place was going for rustic chic, not black tie formal dining. She found it a bit pretentious but that was beside the point. Per their plan she led the way with Cal close behind her. She reached back, caught his hand and placed it on her left hip. It was a spot that you would only touch someone you were intimate with and she thought it would give off the lovey dovey young couple vibe that would explain why they were so close together. It also gave her a little thrill to feel his warm palm in an intimate spot on her body.

The hostess confirmed it was just the two of them and didn't give them a second glance as she turned to lead them to her table. Lindsey quickly grabbed the first seat offered, making sure to keep her front towards the hostess. Cal sat across from her and thanked the hostess. They both breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"That's the highest my heart rate has been all weekend, standing at a hostess stand," Cal said, obviously amused that in a physical competition it was being nervous about being seated at a restaurant that was the biggest stressor.

Lindsey nodded in agreement as their server approached. It was hard not to squirm, she felt bizarre sitting at a nice restaurant with the ass of her clothing pretty much completely soaked. 'Just add it to the list this weekend' she thought to herself.

The server greeted them and handed them menus. Cal told her they were there for the 'Camp Special'.

"Oh that's great," said the server with a smile. "Laurie's a good friend of mine, I think the program she and Pierre run is so cool. I've competed a couple times but never won. I think the mental aspect of it is so cool though.

"I think you may be the first team to arrive today since most of the two tops are in my section and you're the first team to order the special. The wait staff knew there would be a few competitors today but we don't tell the hostess so she won't bend our dress code. Congrats on getting seated by the way, a lot of teams don't consider that and get really frustrated when they show up sweating in running gear and can't get a table. I know you guys are in a rush so I'll just give you a few minutes to pick an app and be right back."

Lindsey felt elated they seemed to be in the lead and that Cal had figured out the first trick of this game. She smiled and offered her fist to him for a bump, which he returned with a smile of his own. They quickly considered their menu options.

"We want something that will be quick to prepare but that we can also eat quickly," Cal said. "Soup and salad will be really quick because they'll have pre-made batches, but they take longer to eat. Thoughts on these breakfast pork belly slider biscuits? They might take a little longer to prep but we can probably eat them in like 3 bites. Might even taste good."

"Works for me," Lindsey replied. The server returned a few minutes later and they ordered.

"So one thing we haven't talked about yet is how we go home. Any thoughts?" Cal asked.

"Maybe just back the way we came?" Lindsey said, a bit tentatively. "Clearly we have a lead and we don't have to worry about getting too hot on the way back, so we can just run as hard as we can manage in these shoes. I'd sort of prefer not to ruin my outfit mucking through those fields. Plus there might be some sort of obstacle not obvious on the map that makes it impossible to cross, barbed wire fence or something like that. I wonder where the other teams are, we've been here at least 10 minutes and in theory had a longer route to get here."

"Who knows, I haven't seen anyone turned away," Cal said. Since Lindsey grabbed the first seat available he had the one facing the front door. "I'm fine with going back the way we came, it seems like the safe...uhhh we may need to rethink our plan," Cal said, clearly surprised.

Lindsey turned to see what had caught him off guard and was shocked to see Annie and Stefan being lead to a table. While seeing them wasn't a surprise, the fact they were both completely clean and wearing the same clothes they had been at the start was. Maybe there was a way across the clean fields without getting dirty? Lindsey closely examined the married couple but she could see no hints of any dirt. They didn't even look warm.

They were seated at a table behind Cal, but Lindsey could see them. Annie looked at her and stuck her tongue out. Lindsey glared at her, this woman really knew how to get under her skin.

"Well now it's a party, I wonder how the heck they pulled that off?" Cal asked, grabbing Lindsey's attention.

She turned again and now Bailey and Cara from Team 4 were walking to a table. If Team 3's appearance confused Lindsey, Team 4's baffled her. Gone were the womens' slightly tired workout clothes, both were wearing attractive sun dresses in dark colors.

As she turned back to Cal she saw their server approaching and was relieved they still were a bit ahead. The server dropped off their plate of three small sandwiches, and they thanked her.

"I know you're in a rush so feel free to eat and run, good luck!" she told them.

Cal grabbed one and took a bite.

"These are pretty good, too bad we can't really enjoy them," he gave his assessment. Lindsey didn't respond immediately, she looked upset.

"They got the Gazpacho, she went to their table right after she dropped off ours," Lindsey explained.

"That's ok, we can eat our sliders way faster than they can eat a bowl of soup. Sorry to rush you but can you take the third one?" Cal asked as he finished the first and began on the second.

Lindsey grabbed the last sandwich and took a bite, it was actually pretty good. As she was eating she watched their competitors. Annie grabbed the bowl of soup with one hand and held the neckline of her dress away from her body, then poured the soup down her cleavage. Her green dress quickly darkened as it absorbed the soup. She shivered, the cold soup clearly having been a bit of a shock.

The couple quickly rose and scampered out of the restaurant giggling, leaving a trail of red liquid behind them.

"What the hell? How did they do that?" Cal asked, stunned.

"She poured the soup down her dress," Lindsey said, shocked.

"Is that allowed?" Cal asked incredulously.

"I can't remember what Pierre said, but let's go," Linsey answered. They had both finished their sandwiches.

-----------D2S13-----------------(C)

They exited the restaurant and looked around for their competition.

"There they are!" exclaimed Cal, pointing. The town was slightly elevated above the surrounding fields on a small knoll. Stefan and Annie were traversing the first field headed in the direction of the camp.

Cal and Lindsey looked at each other and had the same revelation: those two had no qualms about getting dirty, they would take the most direct route to camp and they would know the way since that's how they had gotten to town. This was now a simple race back to the line, no more mental games, this was all about fitness and determination.

"We are not losing to them." Lindsey stated flatly. Cal could sense the white hot anger burning through her by her tone. The adrenaline of competition mixed with frustration at losing to Annie, who pissed off both of them.

Cal nodded and they took off running down the knoll in pursuit.

The first field they came to had crops that were about knee high, but there was a narrow gap, wide enough for one person to run along between the crops and stone wall at the end of the field. This narrow path was where they had seen Stefan and Annie running initially and it was obvious it was the best option to get across the field quickly.

Lindsey continued to set the pace as they began down the path. The couple they were chasing had moved out of sight into the next field, which was separated by a line of trees. Cal noticed Lindsey's white pants had dried somewhat but he could still clearly make out her panties. He ordered himself to not to get distracted, he badly wanted to win. Doubly so because he could sense how upset Lindsey was. The path itself was churned to mud, likely the only path used by the farmer and his workers to traverse this area and made worse by the overnight rains. As they ran he noticed little flecks of mud begin to dot the backs of Lindsey's white pant legs. The mud sucked at his loafers with every step. While they had been serviceable on the harder packed trail, they weren't going to work for this.

He called for Lindsey to hold up, she turned and saw him kick off his shoes. She seemed to immediately understand his thinking; they were not going to risk losing over a stupid pair of shoes. She likely had been slipping herself as her flats had minimal tread, just a flat bottom. She ripped off her shoes and they continued the chase, now able to more agilely.

Cal had moved ahead while Lindsey was getting rid of her shoes and she now followed him. The border of the field was a low stone wall and as they reached the end of it he leapt over confidently. She followed but misjudged, throwing her off balance, she was about to wipe out face first into the dirt but Cal caught her and helped her stay upright. She gave him a smile of appreciation for the save and they continued on.

They immediately spotted Annie and Stefan about three quarters of the way across the second field. 'Good' Cal thought to himself, they were making up time already. He was fairly certain he and Lindsey were in better physical condition, they still had a chance to win if they could continue to cut into the lead. He and Lindsey took off at sprint speed in pursuit. This field appeared to have been recently plowed, the farmer perhaps having recently harvested an early season crop and planning to plant something to harvest in the fall, kale maybe, Cal mused. It ended at the stream, really now wider and more of a creek, that they had crossed earlier.

They moved diagonally across the field, angling towards where they assumed the camp entrance was. The churned up ground, soaked by the overnight rain created a paste of ankle deep brown mud. It reminded Cal of running on the beach for the extra physical effort each step took, but he was in his element, this type of running was a lot like cycling and he found himself pushing his teammate, who was much more of a runner, to her max. He glanced over and saw the determined expression still plastered on Lindsey's face as they ran. They were also kicking up a tremendous amount of mud in their haste, Cal felt splatters on his upper back and noticed that Lindsey's clothing was also flecked with the dark mud.

By the time Team Annie and Stefan had reached the bank of the creek Cal thought he and Lindsey were nearly halfway across the field, so they were continuing to catch up. The couple they were pursuing disappeared over the lip of the bank and disappeared from view. Cal expected to see them soon emerge over the opposite bank but they didn't. As he arrived at the bank of the creek he realized why. There was a length of rusty old barbed wire fencing stretched along the opposite bank with only a small gap between the water and the lowest line of wire. Stefan and Annie were sort of half swimming, half walking north, looking for a gap or the end of the wire. The creek was nothing like the babbling mountain stream from earlier, now into farm country the water was slow moving, dark brown and opaque. The banks were shallowly sloped mud and water was deeper - they would likely have to swim briefly.

"I've seen this," Cal panted, he was out of breath, "the fence is so cattle can get down to the water to drink but can't get into the water and swim off. They actually can swim really well."

The solution seemed to click into place almost immediately for Lindsey. "I think I know what to do," she said, "please trust me."

Cal nodded, he trusted Lindsey implicitly at this point. She took off at a run to the south, which was not towards camp. Cal thought she was going to try to make an end run on the wire to the next field, but after running just a short distance she glanced over her shoulder and leapt down the bank sliding down the muddy bank to the water's edge like a baseball player sliding into home. Cal didn't hesitate and followed her. As he slid to a stop she rose quickly, her right side now muddied, and quickly charged into the water, again he followed her. Soon the water was deep enough that they had to dog paddle but they quickly crossed the creek.

Once the water began to get shallower on the opposite side Lindsey stood and walked up to the fence. She knelt in the mud and pulled the bottom strand of wire upward and was able to raise it just a few inches. The fact all of her clothes were now wet with the muddy water and at least partially transparent was not lost on Cal.

"Under you go," Lindsey instructed, breaking his reverie. He immediately understood her idea. He lay on his back, shoulders pressed into the thick mud of the bank of the creek and began to slither under the lowest strand. There was just barely enough clearance. The barbs were too close together to move between two so he just kept one roughly centered over him so that was the only one he had to worry about. There was just enough room to squeeze his chest under without getting scratched, clearance could barely have been an inch. As he slithered and pressed himself into the soft mud it began to drop under his collar down the back of his shirt. Some also got caught by the waistband of his shorts and even his underwear and covered his ass. He briefly thought about how bad it would be if he got hard at this point. Reminding himself of the objective he re-focused, finished wiggling through enough so he could sit up and pull legs under carefully. He knelt on the opposite side of the fence and raised the strand for Lindsey.

-----------D2S14-----------------(L)

Pleased that Cal understood the plan, Lindsey took one more glimpse up the creek to ensure they were out of sight. The purpose of their short run before jumping into the creek had been so Annie and Stefan couldn't imitate her plan. Satisfied they were out of sight, she lowered herself into the spot Cal had just used and pressed herself into the mud, taking advantage of the shallow depression he had created. She briefly lamented staining her cute lime green top then put it out of her mind; victory was the goal. She began slowly moving under the fence just as Cal had. Unfortunately she had a problem Cal didn't have to deal with: breasts. She tried to suck in her breath as her shoulders passed under the fence, but her bust was just a little too big. The problematic barb caught perfectly in the vee of her top.

"Can you get it any higher?" she asked Cal.

"Pulling...as..hard..as I can," Cal grunted. The wire might have moved a tiny amount, but Lindsey was worried if his grip slipped at all she would get stabbed.

"Fuck it," Lindsey said, and began pushing again, sucking in a breath. The barb tore her shirt but passed between her boobs without any damage. The tearing only stopped below her breasts when the barb gained an additional half inch of clearance beneath her bustline. With a sigh of relief she continued her progress slithering under the fence. Just like Cal she felt mud being pushed under her collar and down her back, as well some going under the waistband of her pants. She had to admit she didn't hate the feeling. She wondered vaguely if Cal would appreciate the color coordination between her panties and white bralette with red dots that had been exposed by her now extremely low cut shirt.

Soon she was under the fence, she rolled over onto her front and quickly climbed the bank. Cal did the same. Lindsey emerged over the bank terrified she'd see Stefan and Annie tearing across this third field but she was surprised to see no sight of them. This field was clearly for grazing, but had not been used in some time as the grass was nice and thick. The thick grass had absorbed most of the moisture from last night's rain so their run across it was much easier than the muddy slog of the previous fields.

The border between this field and the next was a grassy berm with steep sides. Cal was about to leap up when he noticed a metal culvert under the berm for drainage and to prevent it from washing out. He tugged Lindsey on the arm and gestured then ran towards it at full pelt. At the last second he dove, extending his hands in front of his body like an Olympic diver. His gamble paid off, the culvert had a nice layer of thin, slippery sludge, some disgusting mixture of water, mud, oil and who knew what else. Cal sailed right through barely slowing although his otherwise reasonably clean front became completely covered in the sludge.

Lindsey didn't quite understand why he dove in like that, it seemed risky, especially for a woman. She lowered herself into the muck, it felt absolutely disgusting as it soaked her thin top. Even worse, her chest was exposed by the tear from the barbed wire and some of the muck got directly on her skin and bralette. Taking a deep breath she pushed the discomfort to the back of her mind and pulled herself through the narrow space, using her hands on the sides and pushing with her feet. Cal knelt at the far end and once she was close enough she grabbed his hand and pulled her through the rest of the way. He was now thoroughly dirty, barely a clean spot on him. Looking down at herself she realized she was about the same, if not worse.

"Why didn't you just dive through on your chest? It's slippery you could've gone right through like me, world's weirdest slip n' slide," Cal inquired.

A bemused Lindsey pointed to her boobs.

The lightbulb went on for Cal, "Oh, oh sorry, my bad, that probably wouldn't have felt very good," he stammered.

Returning to their task they were relieved to see the road that the camp was on was just across this field. If their navigation had been reasonably correct once they got to the road it should be a short run to the camp entrance. The crops in this field were just beginning to sprout so the soil wasn't churned up and again they could run directly across without too much extra effort. They were already so dirty that neither really cared about the miniscule amount of dirt they added to their attire.

The road was above the level of the fields, perhaps 8 feet Lindsey thought. At first she thought that wouldn't be a major issue but as she got close she realized it might not be so easy. The embankment between the field and road was extremely steep, not quite vertical, but close to it. She approached at a sprint and jumped as high as she could, hoping to use her momentum to get over the top. Her hands grabbed a few tufts of grass at the top but she couldn't get enough purchase. She also discovered the mud of the embankment was much thinner than what they'd encountered today, the runoff from the road had made it very slippery. Unable to get any grip she slid back down to the field, getting a fresh layer of mud over her front for her efforts, some even got on her chin.

Realizing going right over the top wasn't an option, Lindsey looked both ways down the embankment. She didn't see any obvious options to get over easily.

"Maybe I can boost you to the road level and you can find a way to help me up," Cal suggested.

"Sounds good, let's try it. Maybe from up there I can also see a bit more, maybe there's another option." Lindsey replied.

Cal got on his knee and laced his fingers together in the classic boost pose.

"I don't think that's going to cut it dude. Neither of us are anywhere close to 6 feet tall and that damn thing is like 8 feet. An extra foot won't get us there." Lindsey pointed out.

"If I hold my hands higher do you think we could get it?" Cal asked, miming holding his hands at waist height; "Cheerleaders do this shit all the time."

"Ha, things I'm not and never was: a cheerleader or a gymnast." Lindsey replied with a snort. "Plus we're so dirty and slippery there's no way we could pull that off without someone getting hurt.

"How about this, you've got those big cyclist legs, do you think if I get on your shoulders you could lift me?"

Cal didn't even respond, he simply dropped into a squat facing the embankment and motioned for her to climb on. Lindsey moved so his head was between her legs and climbed on. She tried to ignore the fact her exceptionally dirty crotch was rubbing against the head of guy she'd been crushing on all day. They were here to win, not worry about awkward situations, right?

Cal slowly began to lift her, his arms wrapped around her legs to stabilize her while she used the embankment to balance. Lindsey was not a heavy girl, but this was still intense exertion after all they had already done that morning. She heard him grunting with effort, but after a few moments he reached his full standing height. Lindsey's head was not just above the embankment and she could reach the grass with her arms, but there was nothing to grab onto to pull herself up. She would need to get more of her weight over the lip before she could get the rest of the way up.

"Nice job Cal, we're really close, and I can see the camp entrance, it's not far," Lindsey said. "My shoulders are even with the top. I just need like another six inches so I can get my torso on, then I pull myself up. Give me a boost."

Cal fumbled, trying to figure out how to get his hands in a position to boost her from below. Eventually he found some purchase on the back of her legs just above her knees and began to lift. Lindsey felt her weight begin to transfer to the land, just a little bit more and the bulk of her weight would be high enough. Unfortunately Cal couldn't keep his grip with all the mud on the back of her legs, and she slid back onto his shoulders. Cal grunted with frustration.

"Damnit! We were so close!" Lindsey exclaimed, frustrated. "Let's try again, but this time if your hands start to slip move them higher."

"Erm, are you sure?" Cal asked hesitatingly.

"Stop being a fucking prude, I understand what I'm asking," Lindsey called down.

Her instructions had the desired effect. She felt Cal hands grab her above the knees once again and begin to lift. This time once her ass was above his head he switched his hold to her ass, where he could simply push instead of hold and lift. That was enough to get most of her torso over the edge. Now that she had the leverage, she quickly swung her legs up onto the flatter surface. She lay there for a moment to catch her breath, hoping Cal had enjoyed grabbing her ass. She had. Before she lost sight of their main goal, she stood up quickly and looked around for something she could use to help Cal get to the top. She spotted a large tree limb that looked like it might help, she ran over, grabbed it and lowered it to Cal.

"Nice find!" Cal shouted.

He leaned it against the embankment and began climbing, using the smaller branches jutting out from the larger limb as a makeshift ladder. After a few feet of climbing though the branches got too small to support his weight.

"Can you help pull me up a little bit?" he asked. "If you can just help me a little I can use the extra grip this tree gives my feet and I think I can make it."

"Sure thing," Lindsey replied and lay down on her stomach with her arms extended over the side. Cal reached up with one arm, using the other to steady himself, and Lindsey grasped and pulled up. However, they had the same problem as before, their hands were too slippery from the mud and they couldn't keep hold enough to pull him up at all. Thinking quickly, Lindsey realized she needed to wipe off her hands. She tried the grass but her hands were still too slick to really get a grip. Her clothes were all way too muddy to help, or were they? Realizing her underwear were still relatively clean, Lindsey thrust one hand down the back of her pants and one down her front and wiped off the worst of the mud.

-----------D2S15-----------------(C)

"Wipe your hands off so we can get a better grip," Lindsey said. Cal gave her a quizzical look, gesturing to his mud-covered attire. "Use your underwear," she shouted, showing her technique.

That made sense, Cal realized, his underwear weren't coated like his outer clothing, just a little bit down the waistband in the back - the legs of his boxers were still relatively clean. He reached up the leg of this shorts and dried the hand he'd reach up with. He reached up for a pull with his dry hand. Lindsey could get a good grip now and pulled with all her might. The extra help from her was what he needed to take a portion of his weight off the branches; he shimmied up the tree limb like a climbing rope and was soon over and onto the roadway. Just as he crested the embankment an SUV passed slowly on the road. 'They must think we're insane,' he thought. He knelt on the ground for a moment, recovering from the exertion.

Lindsey gave Cal a hand to get to his feet and they began to jog towards the camp entrance and finish line a few hundred yards away. Suddenly a muddy object appeared at the side of the road in front of them. A large human form pulled itself over the side. It was completely covered from head to toe in mud. With a start, Cal realized it had to be Stefan. If he was here Annie couldn't be far behind. Cal broke out into a cold sweat, terrified that they wouldn't finish their comeback. Fueled by a combination of sheer panic and overwhelming desire to win, he broke into an all out sprint for the finish.

Lindsey must have gone through a similar mental process and broke into a sprint at practically the same time. They quickly approached Stefan as he hauled someone - Annie, Cal assumed, although it was impossible to tell for sure - over the edge of the embankment. They used their clothes to make an improvised rope he realized with a start, that's how he could haul her up so quickly. Ingenious. The married couple rose, just a few yards in front of Cal and Lindsey and began to run. However Team 2 were already at full speed and better athletes to boot, they blew past their competitors and didn't let up until they reached the finish line less than a minute later. Annie and Stefan crossed the line just a few seconds behind them.

"Wow! What a close finish!" Laurie exclaimed. "That's one of the closest finishes we've ever had for this challenge. Congrats again Team 2, third time in a row, that doesn't happen very often. Great effort Team 3, easily your best finish so far, and one of the better times we've seen with this game, really good try."

Lindsey was bent over, hands on knees panting for breath. As she caught it she looked around. They had won! Cal had his hands on his hips, breathing heavily as well. Catching her gaze he offered her a high five, which she returned. Annie stumbled across the finish line and collapsed to her knees, apparently crushed at the loss. Stefan knelt beside her, trying to comfort his wife. Cal couldn't tell if they were even wearing clothes they were so completely mud covered. Annie looked up and made eye contact with Lindsey. Lindsey stuck her tongue out at her, taunting Annie. 'Whoa,' Cal thought to himself. He knew Lindsey disliked Annie strongly, but openly taunting her was a bit over the top. Annie cast her eyes downward, embarrassed and clearly frustrated. Cal could tell Lindsey felt a little bad. Despite their disdain for Annie you had to admit they had played well and pushed Cal and Lindsey to their max.

"Hey, well played you two," Lindsey said to Stefan and Annie. "That was a close one, good luck this afternoon. You guys are back in the game now." She pulled Annie into a brief hug - it wasn't like either woman could get a whole lot dirtier.

Annie looked shocked at Lindsey's kindness and seemed to be at a loss for words. Stefan stepped in for her in his kind British accent, "thanks Lindsey, that's very sporting of you," he said with a smile. Annie tentatively smiled as well, a glimmer of white teeth visible under the layers of mud.

"Thanks for the good sportsmanship Lindsey," Laurie inserted herself into the discussion. "You all have some time now to clean up and grab some actual lunch. Competition #4 begins at 2 PM, meet up at the old Rifle Range, which is where this morning's first competition ended. A word of warning: this is the toughest physical challenge of the day, be ready. As always, please try not to make too much of a mess on the way to your showers."


---------D2S16----------------------- (L)

Cal and Lindsey headed back to the main lodge. Cal put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him in a companionable side hug. She leaned in and put her arm around Cal's waist, enjoying the physical contact.

"Awesome work, girl. We overcame so many difficulties this morning. I can't believe it was freakin' Stefan and Annie who came closest to beating us, but you know what, we got it done. Great teamwork, buddy, and nice gesture there at the end too. I know she drives you nuts, but you were really the bigger person there," Cal said.

Lindsey beamed at him. The rage and terror she'd felt at losing had flipped when they crossed the finish line, she was on fire with emotion - elated, satisfied, and confident. She had never felt better in her life: this camp was awesome, Cal was awesome, life was awesome. They were going to win this damn thing.

"You're such a great teammate dude," she said "we worked together so, so, well to figure out solutions when things went sideways. That was amazing, I feel amazing."

They walked the rest of the way to the lodge with their arms around each other's shoulders, swaying and carrying on like drunk friends after a night out but they were just high on the energy of winning an intense game. As they walked huddled closely together Lindsey could feel her emotions shifting, her positive feelings were coalescing into something similar, but a little different: attraction to Cal. The pair made a cursory effort to wipe the worst of the mud off their feet so they wouldn't track across the lodge and climbed the stairs to their room.

"First shower for you again, ma'am?" Cal offered.

Lindsey bit her lip and made a decision.

"Cal, do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?" she asked.

"Uh, no," he answered, confused.

"Well then how about you join me and we save some water?" she asked coyly. She held her breath, nervous that he would reject what her suggestion implied and she would ruin everything. She had not put herself out there in quite some time, had she misread the subtle signs from Cal?

It took a moment, but the lightbulb went on for Cal at what she meant, he nodded dumbly and followed her into the bathroom and into the large shower. Before he could turn on the water Lindsey pulled him into a proper hug. Their slippery, muddy bodies pressed together, sliding against each other. She could feel the softness of her curves press into him, and she felt him begin to get aroused.

"I am having such an amazing time here with you," Lindsey said, a dreamy look on her face. "We make such an awesome team. But I also like you Cal, you treat me as an equal, you're interesting, we vibe. And oh my gosh I feel so beautifully, disgustingly, naughty. Look at me! Muddy and slimy from chin to my toes. I ruined my cute brunch outfit. My top looks like something a hooker would be embarrassed to wear. I feel like a bad girl and I love it."

Lindsey realized she was blabbering. She stopped herself and stared into Cal's eyes. She hoped she looked enticing.

Cal took his cue, leaned in, and kissed Lindsey. It was amazing, white hot, electric. Both of their bodies shivered involuntarily. They continued making out furiously, unable to get enough of each other for several minutes. They pressed their bodies into each other, reveling in both the feeling of closeness and the slippery sensations their mud caked bodies created as they slid against one another.

Cal slid his hands down Lindsey's back to just above her ass, caressing her lower back.

Lindsey sensed he was asking permission and gave him the green light by grabbing his ass and pressing his growing hardness into her. With a groan, Cal slid his hands down to her shapely rear and pulled her into him. She could feel his hard member press into her abdomen.

"Cal you are hot," Lindsey said. "As a big believer in gender equality I know guys are at a bit of a disadvantage in situations like this, so I would like to inform you that my pussy is just as sopping wet for you as your manhood appears to be interested in me."

"Lindsey, I am SO ridiculously into you, come here," he pulled her into another passionate kiss, pressing her body into his.

Breathlessly releasing her from their embrace, he took advantage of her artificially low cut shirt and grabbed her breasts through her thin bralette. He massaged them gently taking care to avoid her nipples to heighten the teasing.

Lindsey leaned into his touch, turned on by his restraint but also desperately wanting to feel him caress her most sensitive bits. She ran her hands down Cal's chest and quickly found hers at his waistband. She put her hand between his legs and grasped his cock through his muddy shorts and gave Cal a pointed look.

Understanding her desire, Cal stopped his teasing and grasped Lindsey's sensitive nipples through the thin material of her bralette. She threw her head back and moaned with arousal at his touch. Sensing more would be good, Cal slipped his hands under the muddy, slimy bralette and grasped Lindsey breasts, alternating between gently massaging them and firmly grabbing her nipples.

Lindsey was going wild with desire, she had to feel more of Cal. She unzipped his shorts and pulled out his cock. Cal's suddenly forceful massage of her boobs told her this was very much ok with him. She sluiced a bit of mud off her midsection with her left hand to use as lube and began jerking him off while her right hand toyed with his balls.

Cal took action before she got to pleasure him too much. He stopped touching her boobs and took a deep breath. He took a page out of Lindsey's book from earlier, he unbuttoned her pants and pushed them down a little to give himself access. Lindsey shimmied her hips in encouragement. He wiped his fingers along the hips of her panties, which were still kind of clean, to get the worst of the mud off his fingers. Satisfied with that, he pulled the crotch of her panties to the side and began to tease her wet opening with two fingers.

Lindsey shuddered with intense arousal. Cal wiping his hands along perhaps the only clean part of clothing still left on her body had had several effects: first, she appreciated that even in this incredibly hot situation he was still thinking about her and knew a muddy finger in a vagina wasn't a really good idea. It also gave her a bit of an extra thrill, she felt just disgustingly dirty, like the naughtiest girl in the world, which drove her wild. Physically, he'd glanced over her erogenous zone just above her hip bones, which sent the shiver of arousal through her body. She could feel herself approaching a climax after only a few minutes of him fingering her. The circumstances and emotions of the day overwhelmed her, and it didn't hurt Cal knew what he was doing with his fingers as he massaged her g-spot and kept light pressure on her clit with his thumb. She soon shuddered as she climaxed.

She pulled Cal into a tight embrace, their muddy bodies pressing together again, although now his erect penis pressed into her defiled underwear.

"Thank you for that, I think it's time for your turn," she said. Lindsey gathered some of sludge from her bra and sexily applied it to Cal's dick, using it as lubricant. It worked even better than the mud.

"You are going to cum in my nasty, gross panties and make me the dirtiest girl in this state," she said breathlessly.

She continued stroking and as she sensed him getting close pulled her panties partially down, exposing her clit. With a smile of encouragement Lindsey jerked him harder and caressed his balls. With a cry of ecstasy, Cal climaxed, his cum covering Lindsey's clitoral hood and running down towards her sex. He leaned back against the wall of the shower, completely spent.

Lindsey was nearly out of her mind with arousal. This hot, sexy man had not only finished dirtying every part of her naughty self but dumped his seed on her most private parts. The scenario put her over the moon. She pulled her panties back up to their normal position and pressed them into her clit, feeling Cal's cum soak through them. She enjoyed the sticky sensation and pleasured herself to a massive orgasm rubbing her clit.

---------D2S17----------------------- (C)

Cal heard a small splash and noticed the crotch of Lindsey's pants was suddenly wet again, a bit of mud washed away. Lindsey looked at him, she looked suddenly self-conscious.

"Whoa, that's hot," he said, awed.

"Whew...so I knew I could do that, err, know how to make myself do that, but that normally involves a lot more than 5 minutes and a little fingering. Something about you and this whole situation just really does it for me, I think."

"You're amazing," Cal stated. He pulled Lindsey into an embrace and they made out again. They enjoyed feeling their dirty bodies pressed together in their post-orgasmic glow.

After a few minutes they began to come down from their high.

"Uh, would you like me to step out while you actually shower?" Cal asked timidly.

Lindsey laughed. "So I actually have a rule on that," she said, clearly joking, "once a guy has gotten me off it's ok if he sees me naked."

"Oh, is this a situation you find yourself in often?" Cal responded, smiling and realizing he was being a bit absurd.

"Haha, jerk" Lindsey answered and turned on the shower. They stepped under the showerheads and the mud began to wash off their bodies.

"Still feels pretty strange to be standing in a shower fully clothed," Cal commented. He'd been pretty well covered in mud but having his clothes soaked felt different, water permeated them in a way the mud didn't.

"Yeah, agreed," said Lindsey, "the two shower heads sure are convenient now though." She grinned at Cal. "I did find out this morning that if you sort of push the mud off with your hands, kind of like a squeegee, it helps get the mud off faster." She demonstrated her technique by scraping her hands down her body to force the mud away.

After a few minutes the bulk of the obvious mud had been washed away. Cal was a little hesitant to just start stripping but figured it was his turn to make the first move after Lindsey had initiated this fun. He stripped off his shirt, which was now mostly blue again, and began trying to wash individual spots of mud out as best he could.

Lindsey carefully removed her torn top, Cal wondered why she cared, she could never wear it again. Her capris were a similar story, they were sort of white again with the worst of the mud washed off but were permanently discolored. She turned to Cal and pulled her hair behind her head while thrusting out her chest teasingly.

"Do you like this cute matching bra and panty set I picked for our brunch date?" she asked Cal.

Cal laughed at the absurdity of her question. First, Lindsey's bralette and panties weren't actually a set, the bra had polka dots and the panties had strawberries. Second, and more important, both pieces of underwear were clearly the worse for wear after their muddy adventure, stained a dirty off white sort of color. To top it off he also knew that the panties had recently been filled with their combined fluids.

"And here I am trying to win the darn game you just think about getting into my pants," he laughed in reply, then removed his shorts.

"So what if I am?" Lindsey asked with a giggle, then sauntered towards him swinging her shoulders. Cal realized she was doing an impersonation of a runway model strut across the shower and laughed at her antics. She fondled Cal's package through his boxers, then whipped off her bralette theatrically. She flicked her hair over her shoulder in an exaggerated fashion and gave him an artificially seductive look.

"Girl, you are something else," he said with a smile. Lindsey grinned, seemingly happy he understood she was messing around and appreciated the ironic performance. Switching back to her typical persona she smiled, pulled Cal into a warm hug and kissed him.

"You are so much fun, and I love that you get my humor," she said, breaking their embrace and moving back under her shower head. "I feel so lucky we ended up paired together: we're a kick ass team and you're super fun to hang out with too," she continued. She slipped her panties off and began washing herself off with soap. Cal took note of her exceptional body. He stripped off his boxers and followed suit washing. After a few minutes of scrubbing to remove the bulk of the grime they exited the shower and began drying off.

"So, time to get our heads back in the game," Lindsey said, her tone shifting from playful to more serious. "How are you feeling physically? I feel like we pushed ourselves pretty hard this morning."

"I think I'm good," Cal replied. "I definitely can tell I've been on the go all morning, but I think with a good meal and hydration I'll be close to full strength for this afternoon."

"Yeah, I think I am in a similar spot," Lindsey replied, "Definitely can tell we've been active but I think with hydration and calories I'll be close enough to full strength for this afternoon. Not like we're the only ones who have been working hard, right?"

The duo walked out of the bathroom and began dressing in clothes for the afternoon.

"This place really is pretty rough on clothes, isn't it?" Lindsey noted "I mean I figured it's a physical competition so I'd need at least one change per day plus one for the evening to relax in. I didn't plan on multiple changes a day though. I guess I'll use my second pair of comfy clothes now and save my last set of clean workout clothes for tomorrow. Lord knows what I'm flying home in at this point. I guess I still have the shorts and t-shirt I wore last night."

"Yeah, I kind of had an inkling from the reviews it was going to be rough so I definitely brought extra," Cal said. "But I also didn't fly so I wasn't too limited on space. If you need a shirt or shorts I'm happy to share," he offered.

"Thanks dude, oh at least our underwear from yesterday is probably dry now, if not strictly speaking 'clean'," she pointed out. She put on a pair of red bikini panties and walked into the bathroom to discover her white sports bra was in fact, dry and mostly clean. She donned it, and it felt mostly normal albeit still with a bit of stiffness from having been hand washed and air dried. It also still had a weird kind of oily residue feeling. It would have to do. She walked out of the bathroom and addressed Cal.

"Hey, can I get my running shorts from this morning back?" she asked.

Cal laughed and fished the shorts out of a pile of his clothes from earlier, then tossed them to Lindsey. She put them on and rummaged through her bag, looking at her options for a top. She decided a light yellow v-neck t-shirt was her best option and put it on.

Cal dressed in a pair of grey gym shorts over black compression shorts with a blue t-shirt. He turned to Lindsey and nearly gasped at how good she looked.

"You look so cute in that outfit!" he exclaimed.

"Uh, it's just a t-shirt and you literally already saw me in the shorts today," Lindsey said, confused.

"I know, I know. I guess it's just like a super cute 'girl next door' look to me. Not sure why but it really does it for me, you look hot," he said. He felt kind of stupid, but something about that simple look on a cute girl like Lindsey who was apparently into him really got him going.

"Heh, thanks I guess, let's head downstairs," Lindsey said and they made their way downstairs.

---------------D2S18----------------------------------(L)

Cal's comment was kind of odd to Lindsey, she wondered if he was just being overly complimentary now that they'd been intimate for some reason. She hoped he wasn't going to change.

Bailey was the only one already downstairs when they got there. She was in the kitchen refilling her water bottle. Her blonde hair was up in a wet bun, having just gotten done with her shower.

"Hey guys," she greeted Cal and Lindsey, "Congrats on another win, you mocking us wearing those shorts again, Linds? You guys got some new plan to trick us?"

"Ha, I actually didn't think about that," Lindsey answered. "To be honest, I'm just running out of clean clothes to wear."

"Yeah, I feel you girl. Cara is upstairs seeing if we can salvage our dresses, I'm on lunch duty," Bailey said. "Care to join?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Cal said, and the trio began making sandwiches.

"Speaking of tricks, as I recall you ladies were in gym clothes at the start of the last challenge, yet showed up at the restaurant less than 5 minutes after us in dresses. How'd you pull that off and get there so quickly?" Cal asked.

"We thought that Pierre's little sign off line at the end of the game this morning could be some kind of hint about needing to meet a dress code, I imagine based on how you guys were dressed you were thinking the same. We didn't see how we could get to town quickly and still be presentable so we decided we wouldn't worry about that and just figure it out once we got to town. From the map it was pretty obvious the fastest route was cross country, so that's what we did," Bailey said.

"Hey Bae, hi guys," Cara greeted them as she came down the stairs. "Filling them in on our misadventures?" she asked Bailey.

"Yeah, how are the dresses doing?" Bailey responded. "Sandwiches are ready if you want to eat."

"Thanks, I'm starving," Cara said, grabbing a plate. "I think my dress will be ok since the pattern wasn't too prominent. It might be a little darker burgundy but it already was dark colored anyway. I'm not sure on yours, the black part obviously washed out fine but the white stripes are kind of weird looking right now, we'll see how it dries."

The four of them sat at the table and began to eat.

"I'm so confused right now," Lindsey said. "Based on what I just went through to get back there's no way to get across those fields and stay clean, even if you move carefully. Not to mention, how the heck did you get a dress?"

"Uh, we bought it. I hid a credit card in my bra," Cara explained, chuckling.

"Is that allowed?" Lindsey replied.

"No idea! We didn't ask and they didn't check," Cara answered with a grin on her face.

"Well fair play to you then, never thought of that possibility. I think it's pretty cool how many ways to accomplish the objectives in these contests there are. I'm pretty sure in all 3 challenges all 4 teams have taken different approaches to accomplishing the same goal," Lindsey said. "How was it getting across those fields at the start? Our chase was kind of manic so I have no idea if we even took the fastest route; we just assumed that we had to chase down Stefan and Annie and followed them for most of it."

"Phew, it wasn't particularly pleasant, I'll tell you that. Honestly, when we saw you all crossing back that way we almost threw in the towel but our competitive side won out. You know how you guys climbed over that embankment a couple hundred yards south of the main entrance?" Bailey said.

Cal and Lindsey nodded, both wondering how Bailey knew.

"So that field you crossed was recently planted and pretty easy to cross, but opposite the entrance to the camp is like this bog of just nasty knee deep mud, I think it's runoff from the stream or something, I'm not sure. But anyway, we charged out of camp at the start and Annie and Stefan are right with us, so we were kind of racing them instead of doing the smart thing and looking for the best route. So we just went on the most direct path to town and leapt down the embankment into all that and were immediately pretty much covered in mud." Bailey said, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the memory.

"Wait, ok, trying to work this out," Cal interjected, "first, how far behind us were y'all? Also, I know y'all bought new clothes but Annie and Stefan didn't unless they bought identical clothes, what did they do?"

"Oh, we were actually pretty close behind you," Cara said, "we used the tree branch you guys left and got up about when you crossed the finish line. We just didn't sprint out the last part because we knew we couldn't catch either team and the bros were nowhere to be seen."

As if on cue, Dillon and Tommy burst through the front door. They were sweat-soaked and looked exhausted.

"Fuck this fucking game!" Tommy shouted, "Damn racket, pretend to be a race and they put all kinds of bullshit obstacles that make no sense!"

"Whoa, what happened to you boys?" Lindsey asked, trying not to sound smug.

"We ran to that freaking restaurant, but they wouldn't seat us because we 'didn't meet the dress code' sorry but we're really frustrated," explained Dillon. "Then we run all the way back here to change and find out we finished freaking last again, it's BS!"

"Whoa, that was like 6 or 7 miles to town right?" Lindsey said. "So you just ran like a half marathon for nothing, that sucks." She tried not to smirk and mostly succeeded, she thought.

Tommy stormed off to his room upstairs. Lindsey may not have done the best job possible hiding her glee at their misfortune.

"We're actually recapping how our various approaches went, if you want to join us while you cool down," Lindsey offered to Dillon, feeling a little bit guilty.

"Thanks," he replied gratefully and went to the refrigerator to get cold water before pulling up an extra chair and plopping down, exhausted. "Y'all finish first and second again?" he asked.

"No, actually," Bailey said, "Cal and Lindsey actually just beat out Stefan and Annie."

"Oh wow, didn't see that coming," Dillon said. "I haven't paid a ton of attention but it seems to me like they haven't taken this game very seriously before. Like they only beat us yesterday because they figured out Lindsey's 'pants bag' trick before us...not to mention we were wearing shorts. Then they basically just fucked around in the first game this morning."

"Yeah, it was kind of an odd shift," Cal noted, "they went from treating this like a lark to suddenly really serious. By the way, props to Lindsey for being kind when they were clearly mad."

"Yeah we saw that too," Bailey added, "cheers to you Lindsey for being good sport instead of twisting the knife."

"Ok so back to where we were, you two were really close behind us if you saw that," Cal said. "What happened in town after you crossed that mud bog and I guess the rest of the fields?"

"The mud continued all the way down until we got to the stream, or creek, or whatever you want to call it. Eventually we realized we could skirt the edge and move a bit faster since it wasn't so deep. The good part was that the barbed wire fence ends at about the edge of the bog so we didn't have to deal with that and once you cross the creek it's a relatively straightforward run to town." Bailey explained.

Lindsey and Cal realized that's why Annie and Stefan had been moving down the creek instead of trying to sneak under the barbed wire. It seemed that they had gotten a bit lucky getting under it.

"Obviously by that point we were pretty disgusting between the mud, creek water and sweat," Cara continued, "we assumed we wouldn't be allowed in a clothing store, and even if we could get new clothes we were way too dirty to be seated. We found a gas station with a hose out back and washed ourselves off so we were somewhat presentable. Then we went to one of those boutiques and grabbed sun dresses and sandals as quick as we could, changed in the store and went to the restaurant. We got some weird looks shopping while still basically sopping wet but nobody said anything."

"Did you guys see Team 3 after the initial start?" Lindsey asked.

"Ohhhh yes, you could say that" replied Bailey rolling her eyes and looking knowingly at Cara.

"Yeahhhh, so you asked earlier about how they kept their clothes clean?" Cara said. "Plastic bags. They stripped as soon as they were out of sight of camp, we think, and put their clothes in plastic bags. They used the same hose as us, actually had to wait a couple minutes while we finished up rinsing."

"Like, stripped completely?" Dillon asked, wide eyed.

"Yep, completely nude as best we could tell," said Bailey, "we didn't exactly stick around to confirm and they were very muddy, but it appeared so."

"Oh, so that's how they beat you to the restaurant," Lindsey surmised, "they just had to rinse off, dress and go, while you guys had to go to the boutique, buy clothes and change."

"Yeah, that's what we figure," Cara said. "Honestly we were really frustrated to walk in and find two teams already there, we thought we played a good strategy. So now I want to know, how did you two," she gestured at Cal and Lindsey "manage to make it there and meet the dress code?"

"Well we may not have 100% met the dress code for those who closely inspected us," Lindsey replied, laughing. "This guy," she gestured towards Cal, "actually picked out a path on the map around to the east of the fields that was a little longer but we didn't have to get dirty. We stopped at the stream, by the way it's much more a clear stream than muddy creek before it gets to the fields, and did a quick rinse so we were presentable after getting sweaty. Unfortunately my dumb ass slipped and fell so the back of my (once) white pants was completely wet and I assume transparent, but we figured Cal could walk close behind to conceal that, and that's how we got seated. From there I think you pretty much saw the rest."

"Oh my gosh, sitting in a restaurant with soaked underwear has got to be the weirdest feeling ever!" Bailey said, "we didn't take time to buy new underwear of course so ours were still pretty much soaked.

Cara, Bailey and Lindsey exchanged knowing looks.

"I feel like I'm playing a different game," Dillon said, shaking his head. "I know I said this to Cal last night but we have got to stop thinking so literally and start being more creative with our strategies. I'm so impressed by you all. Going to go grab a shower before I eat lunch, but thanks for the eye opening debrief. Good luck this afternoon."

He stood up and went upstairs.

The other four continued chatting for a bit, making sure they were re-hydrating for the afternoon. They talked about their backgrounds, playing sports, and speculated on where the heck Team 3 was. Lindsey really enjoyed the conversation, she felt like Bailey and Cara were types of ladies she would befriend if she met them back home. Eventually it was time to head out the fourth competition and they departed for the starting spot at the old rifle range.


-------------------------D2S19-------------------------(C)

The foursome who seemed to be becoming fast friends were the first to arrive at the starting point for the afternoon's first competition - the fourth of the larger contest. Laurie greeted them in a small clearing just before the field and asked what they thought of the camp overall so far.

"It's easy for me to say this with how we've done so far, but I am having an amazing time. It's everything I hoped for to be honest," Lindsey answered enthusiastically. "I don't love the rate at which I'm destroying the clothing I brought, but it is what it is, I won't lose any sleep over it, especially if we win."

"Yeah, I agree," said Bailey, "we haven't had the success Cal and Lindsey have, but we're enjoying the intensity and all the ways there are to take on these challenges. We got filthy as hell playing college soccer on less than ideal pitches in the rain, so that aspect doesn't bother us."

"Plus, I've noticed there are definitely ways to complete every challenge without getting dirty," Cal noted, "so it's really just a choice we make to pursue the strategy we think is right." He fervently hoped they could do well in this challenge without having to get all messy considering how cute Lindsey looked and her lack of clean clothes.

Dillon and Tommy sauntered up to the rest of the group. Now that it was mid-afternoon with the sun out it was getting very hot. The guys both wore gym shorts and shirts with the sleeves cut off and sides hollowed out that had their fraternity's name on the front. They both stood at the edge of the little clearing, arms crossed, faces unreadable. Cal pondered what their mindset was. Had Dillon convinced Tommy to adjust his thinking? Were they just resigned to losing at this point? It would be interesting to see how they performed in this challenge. Pierre and Laurie had warned them this would be the most physically demanding game yet, perhaps they were relying on that.

Annie and Stefan were close behind Team 1. Stefan was wearing a grey tank top and short white rugby shorts. Annie was in a workout outfit that consisted of grey spandex shorts and a purple top that was somewhere between a sports bra and a tank top. Like the men of Team 1 they didn't engage with the group beyond polite nods and stood with serious expressions. Cal contemplated the changed demeanors of Teams 1 and 3. He wondered if the ruthless competitors he and Lindsey had shown themselves to be was hardening the competition.

"Good afternoon everyone," Laurie started the introduction, "to start this afternoon's festivities let's review scores so far. As I'm sure you all are aware Team 2 has won all 3 competitions so far and is in first place with 9 points. Tomorrow's game IS worth double points, but if they have more than a six point lead on the rest of you they will clinch victory today. If that happens we'll meet as a group to discuss how we want to handle tomorrow. As you all know, there is no second place prize here so we don't necessarily have to complete the competition as planned, we'll figure that out together if it comes to pass. HOWEVER, them clinching today would also be an unprecedented first, it's never happened in the history of this camp. Teams have come close but it has never actually happened. I hope the rest of you are motivated to keep that streak alive."

Tommy, Dillon, Stefan and Annie looked even more grim and determined after that speech. Bailey and Cara didn't have quite the same grim expressions but Cal could see in their eyes a focused competitiveness.

"One other team has scored in every contest so far - Team 4 - they're in second place with 4 points. Team 3 is in third with 3 points and Team 1 has just the two points from their runner up finish in our first challenge this morning. Good luck to everyone this afternoon, let's proceed to the starting point," Laurie finished.

The group walked a short distance and emerged from the trees into a large field. The first thing Cal noticed were a pair of small tractors up on cinder blocks facing each other. He was not an expert in farm equipment but these seemed like simple compact utility tractors - no massive cab and no attachments on them right now.

"Here at the camp we need to use tractors from time to time," Pierre began the explanation of the challenge. "They're needed to set up some of our challenges and we also maintain a large garden to supply both us and to sell produce in town. Lucky for you all, we decided it's time for us to swap out the rear wheels on our tractors, so that's what you will be doing today as your fourth challenge. To complete the challenge you must dismount your assigned rear wheel, take it to the tractor shed at the other end of the field, grab a new wheel from the shed, bring it back here and mount it on the tractor. Just like changing to a spare on your car, just that these are a bit bigger. Simple, right?"

Cal nodded to himself. This seemed doable but he could understand why they had been warned this was a physically intense challenge.

"Come on y'all, you should know 'simple' isn't part of our vocabulary here, of course there's a wrinkle!" Laurie said with a smile. "Something you may not know about farm equipment is that tractor tires are often filled with liquid to act as ballast. The new tires on the wheels you are going to mount are currently just filled with air, you will need to add 50 pounds of ballast to complete your task. That's not actually as much as we should ultimately add, but too much more than that and the weight of the wheels would start to get a bit too heavy to be moved safely. You can try to recycle the ballast in the old tires if you wish or you can just use water from the stream down by the tractor shed." She pointed to the opposite end of the field where the contestants could see a small bridge leading across the stream to a shed.

"We have provided each team with a small hand pump for liquid, one for air, hoses, buckets and all of the wheels have fluid adapters on them so you can pump liquid in or out as needed."

"The last thing we want to emphasize is safety," Pierre said. "You are dealing with very heavy objects here - each wheel weighs about 80 pounds on its own before you add the required ballast. The wheels currently on the tractor each have upwards of 100 pounds of ballast in the tires. It's beet juice by the way, which weighs more than water per gallon but is completely safe and has a lower freezing point. We strongly recommend you drain some before dismounting the wheels.

"If at any point you start to lose control of a wheel DO NOT try to catch it, grab it off balance or anything like that. You could be seriously injured. Do not try to move the wheels at a run. If we observe any unsafe or even moderately risky behaviour that team will be disqualified. Any questions?"

"How quickly do the hand pumps transfer liquid?" asked Dillon.

"Not very, but it depends on how hard you can pump them," Pierre answered.

How will you know when we've gotten to 50 pounds?" inquired Stefan.

"Each tractor is on a scale, we'll have to keep track of who put their tire on first and who is pumping what in since of course there's two wheels on each tractor, but we should be able to tell. If there's any question we can help you dismount a wheel to verify," explained Laurie.

"How many gallons of water or beet juice do we need to add to get to 50 pounds?" asked Cara.

"Hmmm, good question," replied Pierre. He briefly conferred with Laurie before continuing. "We've decided we aren't going to give you an exact number, but we can let you know that beet juice weighs approximately 50% more per gallon than water.

Nobody had any further questions and the teams moved into position. Teams 1 and 2 were assigned to one tractor and Teams 3 and 4 to another. For Cal and Lindsey that meant the only team that they could really observe was Annie and Stefan working next to them since the other two teams were on the opposite sides of the tractors. Pierre shouted that they could begin work and everyone got to work.

Cal and Lindsey briefly discussed their plan.

"There's certainly a number of different ways to approach this one, but I think overall we need to keep in mind we've got a big lead. As long as we keep scoring points we will be in a really good position tomorrow. We need singles, not necessarily home runs this afternoon," Cal said.

Lindsey looked at him with surprise, but then her logical side seemed to kick in and she replied, "I suppose you're right. It's a bit against my natural tendencies but we do need to keep the larger picture in mind. Where do you think we should start?"

"Well the fastest way to get the juice out of the tire would be to just get the tire off the hub and dump it out, we'd need something to use as a tire iron to dismount it."

Cal examined the tools they had been given. The lug wrench might be a possibility...in typical camp fashion they'd just been given a cheap wrench instead of a proper x-wrench. However that might actually work out here if he could wedge the handle between the wheel and the tire. He picked it up and began to see if this was a possibility. He couldn't get much purchase, maybe if Lindsey helped they could work together? He dismissed the possibility, if they did succeed, juice was going to go everywhere. He didn't want that.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, let's start pumping some juice out into a bucket we can reuse. The one who isn't pumping can begin taking the lug nuts off," he said.

"Ok, I'll start the pump," Lindsey answered. She attached the hose to the adapter on the wheel, placing the opposite end in the bucket.

Cal rotated the wheel so that the valve stem was pointed downwards.

"This should cause it to flow faster, the gravity will work with us," he said.

Cal glanced over at Team 3 while he began removing lug nuts. They seemed to be fiddling with the adapter. It took him a moment to realize what they were up to. With the valve stem exposed they could remove the valve core and the juice would flood out of the tire with nothing to hold it in. That would certainly get the juice out faster than their pump but once gravity had done its work it seemed like they would have a hard time getting more than maybe a quarter of the juice out since air would be lighter. It would also be an extremely messy process to try to collect the juice from the valve. He dismissed their approach as inefficient.

Suddenly, there was a loud 'pop' from the opposite side of their tractor, followed by a shout of 'Let's fucking gooooooo'. There was the loud sound of a large amount of liquid spilling. It took Cal only a moment to surmise that Team 1 had managed to dismount the tire from the rim to quickly drain the majority of the juice from it. A minute later Dillon and Tommy, arms purple with beet juice, came around the tractor pushing the large wheel. The tire had clearly been dismounted but the two big men were having no trouble controlling it.

After a few minutes Cal was almost done loosening the lugnuts and took a short break to check on Lindsey's progress pumping. The bucket was already nearly a third full, that was good progress. He gave her a thumbs up and went back to do the last couple lugs.

He glanced over at Team 3 to see how they were doing as he got back to work. It looked like they had managed to open the valve stem and juice was flowing. Stefan was holding the hose over the valve and Annie was directing the flow into the bucket. He still wasn't seeing how slowly draining could be more efficient than gravity.

He found out a how a few minutes later when Stefan handed the hose off to Annie, who continued letting it drain into the bucket while he rotated the wheel stop the flow. Stefan reinserted the valve core and attached the air pump. The light went on for Cal, by pumping more air into the tire they could compact the liquid and when they took off the air pump and pulled the valve core they would basically have created the equivalent of a juice squirt gun. Clever.

"Shittt," he muttered.

"Everything ok?" Lindsey asked, "have an issue with the lugs?"

"No, no, I'm done with those," Cal replied, trying to keep his voice low. "I just figured out what they're up to. They're using the air pump to compact the liquid in the tire and force it out faster."

"Uh should we switch to that?" Lindsey asked.

Cal looked in their bucket, it was well past half full, probably two-thirds.

"I don't think so, they're not going to be able to capture it all with it coming out that fast, plus we'd have to waste time removing the adapter and pulling the valve core before we could even start pumping air." Cal said, not bothering to mention how much of a mess it would make.

Cal took over pumping to give Lindsey a break. He kept his eye on Annie and Stefan, they seemed to be about ready to pull off the air pump. He wondered how well this would work. Annie was holding the hose, clearly intending to cover the valve once Stefan pulled the air nozzle off. With a nod from Annie he did that and juice began to spray everywhere. Annie was anticipating this and quickly tried to cover the valve with the hose, which would funnel the juice into one of their buckets. Unfortunately for her, the liquid was spraying so hard that the hose basically couldn't hold it, as if it was boiling over, causing the juice to spill everywhere.

Cal felt as if he could observe the gears turning in Annie's head about how to solve this problem. Realizing the hose wasn't going to be able to capture enough juice she abandoned her original plan. She put the bucket right under the valve and stepped into it, crouching so the juice hit her right in the middle of her chest. She pulled her purple top away from her cleavage to basically create a pocket for the juice to land. It was like she was getting blasted by a high pressure hose right in her cleavage but it seemed to work. It was brilliant, Cal realized, almost all the juice shooting out of the tire was hitting her and flowing down her body into the bucket she was standing in.

"Get the second bucket!" Annie shouted less than a minute later. Stefan was quickly on hand with their second five gallon bucket. Annie carefully stepped out of her bucket and out of the spray and he quickly covered the valve with the new bucket while Annie moved the first aside. Cal could tell it was nearly full by how carefully he maneuvered it.

Stefan lowered the bucket he was holding a few seconds later, the flow from the valve was slackening. He had certainly gotten a good splattering of juice but Annie's outfit was soaked and stained. She looked into the bucket her husband put down and was clearly dissatisfied. Without a second thought she whipped off her top and handed it to Stefan then pulled off her shorts and began wringing them out into the bucket. Quickly catching on, Stefan began wringing out her saturated top.

Cal did a double take, Annie had not bothered with underwear and was very obviously naked. He wasn't shocked to see she was completely shaved everywhere below her neck. He was also quite surprised at the transformation in the married couple's demeanor. Gone was the laissez faire attitude from the first few games. Now every choice seemed focused on winning. He caught Annie shooting a mocking look at Lindsey, then she turned to him and her expression changed to suggestive as she waggled her eyebrows while he was still transfixed.

"Care to refocus on the task at hand?" Lindsey interrupted his reverie.

"Sorry, sorry," Cal said, he was embarrassed. "How full is the bucket?"

"Pretty close to all the way," Lindsey answered.

"Ok, I bet that's enough weight, let's get this tire down and go get the new one." Cal said.

The pair began leveraging the wheel off the tractor and soon had it on the ground. They began carefully rolling the extremely heavy object towards the tractor shed. They had to be careful to keep it balanced upright as they crossed the field; if it fell over Cal wasn't sure they could get it back upright.

Suddenly, Team 4, Cara and Bailey came sprinting past. Cal had practically forgotten them with everything that had been going on. Lindsey gave him a quizzical look, her eyebrow raised.

"Uh, no idea to be honest. Also what have they been doing for the last 15 minutes while we've all been working?" Cal pointed out.

"Not sure, but I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this game," Lindsey said.

"Don't worry, we're fine. Remember, we just need to score points here, not dominate," Cal reminded her.

A few minutes later they approached the bridge across the stream to the tractor shed. Bailey and Cara already had their replacement wheel upright and were rolling it towards them. Tommy and Dillon had also retrieved their new wheel and were up to their thighs in the stream, one holding the wheel and one operating the water pump. Cal realized they were actually being smart for once; by keeping the wheel in the stream they were minimizing the amount of pumping they had to do compared to pumping the water uphill if the wheel was on the bank. He didn't envy them trying to have to lift a 100+ pound wheel out of the stream though.

Team 4 reached the bridge with their new wheel first so Cal and Lindsey sportingly let them cross since it was only wide enough for one team at a time. While they were waiting they were shocked to see Annie and Stefan quickly approaching. With their mostly empty wheel they must have been able to move faster than Lindsey and Cal with their only half empty wheel. Lindsey shot Cal a panicked look.

"It's ok," he whispered, "we're in good shape here. "The guys have to get their heavy ass wheel out of the stream, we can move faster than Team 3 once we have equal weight wheels and I have no idea what Team 4 is doing. We execute and we'll be fine."

Lindsey's expression said she didn't totally buy what he was saying but she nodded and waited stoically for Team 4 to clear the bridge. Annie and Stefan had arrived while they waited and Annie started pushing their wheel across the bridge as soon as the ladies were clear.

"Not so fast, bitch!" Lindsey yelled and shoved the naked girl back, causing her to stumble and nearly lose control of her wheel. Luckily Stefan was able to gain enough purchase to keep it upright while Annie recovered her balance.

"Hey, can't blame a girl for trying," Annie exclaimed with her eyes on Cal, clearly trying to upset Lindsey.

Cal and Lindsey ignored her and rolled their wheel across the bridge to the shed, where they finally dropped it. The switch from a wheel still partially full of ballast to an empty one made things a lot easier and they moved much more quickly on their way back towards the tractors.

Team 1 had managed to lever their full tire out of the stream bed using their impressive strength but Cal and Lindsey passed them on the way back pushing their lighter wheel and were soon back to the tractors. The only other team that had their new wheel at the tractors was Bailey and Cara, but they still hadn't taken their old one to the shed as far as Cal knew.

"Ok, you feeling better now?" Cal asked, breathing heavily.

"Yes, thank you, sorry for doubting, let's get this thing mounted," Lindsey replied, also out of breath, and gestured to the wheel.

The pair carefully hoisted the huge wheel, aligning it to the pins on the hub of the tractor and after several tries mounted it successfully. They fist bumped and Cal felt like they were back on track.

"Ok, looking good," he said, "let's alternate pumping the juice in and the one not pumping can work on securing the lug nuts. Two minutes of pumping and then we switch. Max effort on the pump, that will take us the longest."

Lindsey gave him a thumbs up and began attaching the hose from the pump to the tire. Cal worked on attaching and tightening the first lug nut.

Unfortunately their levity was short-lived. Cal noticed the guys approaching as he made the first switch with Lindsey and began pumping. Team 1 had arrived with their full tire; and after a few minutes of grunting he heard 'LET'S FUCKING GO BRO' shouted from the other side of the tractor. Team 1 had managed to use their brute strength to win the challenge. 'Fair enough,' Cal thought to himself, at some point their strength was bound to pay off.

Soon after that Cara and Bailey went past them, moving their old tire. Their strategy suddenly became clear to Cal: they had grabbed their replacement wheel first and pumped juice directly from the old wheel to the new using a gravity assist, then swapped wheels. He was kicking himself for not thinking of that - it was brilliant. He and Lindsey redoubled their efforts to pump, now in a race to get enough juice in to tip the scales before Team 4 could drop their old wheel at the shed and sprint back.

It was close but Team 4 arrived back at the tractors just as Cal and Lindsey reached the bottom of their bucket. Cal was disappointed but at least they would still get a point. Team 3 had just arrived few moments before and had barely begun pumping their ballast into the tire.

"Alright, that's a game!" shouted Laurie.

Cal looked at her perplexed, while they had pumped the bulk of their bucket of juice back into the tire he didn't think it was enough total weight.

"Unfortunately we are going to have to assess a penalty for this challenge," Pierre said. "Team 2, we observed you making an aggressive action towards another team while they were controlling a wheel. As we mentioned in the safety briefing, these wheels are extremely dangerous if not controlled. Your move jeopardized the safety of you and your fellow competitors. As a result you will finish last in this challenge and score no points."

"Team 1, congratulations on your victory gentlemen, your first of the session," Laurie continued, nodding to Dillon and Tommy. "We'll meet back at the Old Mess Hall in 15 minutes for Game 5, see you there. This one will be a bit more relaxed, don't worry!"

Cal turned to Lindsey, expecting a look of contrition. He was surprised to see her staring back at him, white hot rage obvious in her expression.

-------------D2S20------------------(L)

Lindsey was as angry as she'd ever been in her life. Mad at herself for making a stupid mistake by pushing Annie and for letting that little provocateur get under her skin, mad she had agreed to their cautious approach, and most of all mad at Cal for trying some white knight bullshit to keep her from getting dirty. She stalked away from the tractors back towards the camp, trying to control her raging emotions, oblivious to the others. Cal hurried after her.

"Are you ok?" Cal asked, waiting until they were out of earshot of the rest of the group.

"No, I'm not fucking ok you dipshit! I thought I had a real teammate. It turns out I have some dumbass yokel from whatever bumfuck town you came from who wants to treat me like a damn princess and thinks I can't stand up for myself or make my own decisions!" Lindsey yelled.

"Uh, did I miss something?" Cal asked, clearly perplexed at her anger. That only infuriated Lindsey more.

"Do you remember the first fucking conversation we had yesterday? We agreed we were here to win. Yet here you are, worrying about my feelings and my fucking clothes for chrissake! Unlike you, I'm not a fucking moron, Cal. If those meatheads could get the fucking tire off the wheel there's no reason we couldn't have too. We could probably also have saved time spraying juice like Team 3. But noooo, fucking Master Strategist Cal over here is more concerned about me not getting a shitty t-shirt dirty. If not for your idiotic decisions, I wouldn't have even had to push Annie to defend our spot!" Lindsey shouted, incensed.

"I was just trying to do what I thought was the best strategy," Cal said, meekly. It was pretty clear he wasn't being entirely truthful.

"Oh please, you're pathetic. Look me in the eyes and say that," Lindsey said.

Cal couldn't, he just stared at the ground, ashamed. Lindsey actually felt a tiny bit bad, but she was too far down this road to change course.

"Jackass," Lindsey said with disgust.

"You know, it's not like I ordered you to do anything, Lindsey. You chose to go along with my suggestions," Cal pointed out. "You are also the one who drew the damn penalty."

Lindsey ignored that barb. "You know what? You're right. That's not a mistake I'll be repeating. From now on I'll be setting our strategy and you will follow my orders, are we clear?" Lindsey said.

"If that's what it takes to get you refocused on the game then fine, we have no chance with you acting this way," Cal said.

"Small dick little bitch, I can't believe I let an asshole like you touch me," Lindsey grumbled, regretting their earlier encounter. She turned away and stalked off in the direction Pierre and Laurie had indicated.

Lindsey's logical side knew she was being unreasonable and unfair, but that side was not currently governing her words and choices. She continued walking towards the building they called the Old Mess Hall, ignoring Cal. He followed submissively, presumably hoping to avoid upsetting her further.

Lindsey and Cal were the first to arrive at the mess hall. A table had been set up in the small clearing in front of the building and had several laptops and some other equipment on it. A stylishly dressed woman she did not recognize was standing near it. Lindsey eyed her suspiciously.

"Hello there," the woman said, "are you enjoying the camp?"

"Well I was until the last game," Lindsey replied. "Are you part of the camp staff?"

"Ah yes, this game can certainly have its twists and turns," the woman answered primly. "We're actually the guests at the lodge that is the prize for winning, this week. Pierre and Laurie asked if I'd mind helping out with this challenge and I was happy to donate a bit of my time."

"Oh cool how is the lodge?" Cal asked. "Despite our missteps in the last game we're actually in first place right now, so we still have at least a shot." He punctuated his statement with a look towards Lindsey.

'Probably trying to get me to calm down, well fuck him, not happening,' she thought to herself.

"Oh, well congratulations to you!" the woman said. "If you're in first place at this stage of the game you two must be doing something right. As to the lodge, it's truly wonderful. The pictures are beautiful but don't do it justice. The scenery alone would be worth it, but the building itself is also so nice and comfortable. At this point you've figured out how challenging winning a session can be, and trust me, it won't get easier, but I can assure you the prize is very much worth it."

Lindsey didn't know what to make of this woman. She spoke like some sort of high society lady, but if she was a former winner at AARC she must have some degree of gumption. She filed the thought away it for later consideration.

The rest of the contestants began trickling into the clearing. Tommy and Dillon were strutting around, in the wake of their victory, caricatures of the manly men they clearly believed themselves to be. They had gotten some splashes of juice on their muscle tank tops, but didn't seem to care about that for once. Lindsey could not have been more put off by them, especially Tommy; she hated the way he looked at her.

Bailey and Cara were next. Lindsey could tell they were frustrated to have still not won a contest. She had to admit their approach had been really clever, she hadn't thought of it and it didn't seem like anybody else had either. She kind of wished she could switch to their team. Maybe next year, she mused.

Stefan and Annie were last, followed by Laurie and Pierre. Annie had at least put her workout outfit back on, but the grey shorts were no longer grey and the light purple top was hopelessly stained by the beet juice. Stefan wasn't quite as dirty but was far from clean himself.

"And here we are, the final competition of the day, and penultimate competition of this whole tournament," Pierre began, addressing the group. "Team 2 came crashing back to Earth in our last game, but they still have 9 points, a healthy 3 point lead over Team 4 on 6 points. Team 1 jumps into third after their win with 5 points. Team 3, you're in last with 4 points so far. Depending on what the other teams do you could be mathematically eliminated if you don't score points in this game, do your best to stay in it for the finale tomorrow."

Lindsey looked at Annie, hoping to send a mocking smile in her direction, but Annie looked determined and clasped Stefan's hand fiercely, her desire to avoid elimination was obvious. Stefan's expression was as difficult to read as ever, but he seemed to follow Annie's lead for the most part. Quite the turnaround in attitude, Lindsey mused, from completely non-serious to competitive ever since she and Cal bested them in their comeback before lunch. And before the encounter in their shower she now regretted.

"For Game 5, we're doing something that will test some different talents - it's a cooking competition," Laurie said. "Each team gets 30 minutes in the kitchen of the mess hall to create a fantastic dish for our panel of judges," she gestured towards the woman and Pierre as well as herself, "to sample. The winner is the team that can prepare the dish that has the best flavor and the best presentation in the time allotted with the food left over in the mess hall.

"As with our previous game, there is an important safety element here. None of us want to get food poisoning, so it's very important that each of you washes your hands as appropriate and handles the food safely. Use common sense. There are cameras throughout the kitchen and we'll be monitoring on our laptops out here," Laurie nodded towards the table. "If we notice anything that might jeopardize our health we will not taste your dish and you will be judged purely on presentation. That usually doesn't end well. If you've watched 'Chopped!' you know what I mean. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Bailey said, "you said 'left over,' is all the food in the kitchen safe to use?"

"Good question, and thank you for asking," Pierre answered. "Yes, any food you locate is not expired and safe to use, this isn't some sort of trick game. Just keep in mind any meat needs to be heated to an appropriate temperature. You'll find meat thermometers next to the stove."

"Also, that reminds me," Laurie said, "we'll do a brief cleaning after each team so that every team has a roughly equal playing field, although we are not restocking ingredients. We'll be going in the reverse order of last round's finish, so Team 2 will get first crack. It doesn't seem like they'll need a pregame shower," Laurie noted Cal and Lindsey's basically clean status, "so if there's nothing further we can get started."

"Wait, how is that fair?" Annie called out, "they're in first overall and they're basically getting the best spot."

Lindsey's blood boiled, her competitive instincts kicking in, she gave Annie a furious look.

"I would not be so quick to say that is the best spot," Pierre answered calmly, "keep in mind while they may have more ingredients available the teams following them will be able to see what they make and have a rough idea of the level of cuisine required to beat them."

Annie seemed appeased and nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"Well then, without further ado, 30 minutes on the clock, Team 2 you are up. There is a clock that will show the countdown in the kitchen as well as one on our computers, obviously if it expires before you deliver your dishes you can't score points. The rest of you please shower if you need to in the shower house over there," Laurie gestured towards the nearby showers they'd used that morning. "Team 3 please make sure you're ready to go in 30 or so minutes," she added, giving Annie's messy state a bit of a pointed look.

-----------D2 S21------------------(C)

Cal and Lindsey moved quickly into the mess hall and crossed the large open area that presumably had once been the dining hall to enter the kitchen. Cal looked around and quickly realized that, as always, this wasn't as simple as it might have appeared initially.

The appliances were quite old, probably '80s vintage, and designed to cook large meals for hundreds of hungry campers. At least they appeared to have been freshly cleaned. The cookware was similarly aged, all metal pots, nothing non-stick or even cast iron, as well as similarly sized for large scale meal preparation, not ideal for making a high quality meal for three people. The most striking thing, however, was that it appeared the organizers had left a huge amount of canned food that looked as if it was leftover from when this place was still a boy scout camp. There were hundreds of big No. 10 cans, some with faded labels, some simply had black stamps indicating their contents and some were not labeled at all. There were also many boxes of dried food on shelves along the wall, sort of an industrial sized pantry. The only modern thing in the whole place aside from the cameras, he noted, was a digital clock counting down; it now read 28:43. That must be their remaining time.

Cal walked to a large commercial refrigerator and looked inside. There were a couple items but it was sparse: some milk, cheese, cream, yogurt and a few other perishable goods. He also noticed there was a small basket with some fresh produce tucked on a pantry shelf. Next he began going through the drawers under the counter, they were surprisingly empty. The realization dawned on him: the organizers had left hardly any cookware to use. 'That tracks,' he thought to himself. He looked at the timer, they had just over 27 minutes left, time to get to work.

"What do you think?" Cal asked Lindsey, who had been doing a similar investigation of what they had to work with.

"Aside from that you're a jerk," she answered icily, "I think the big challenge here is just getting something reasonable cooked in the time allotted. There's so much food just finding something that makes a reasonable dish will be tough."

Cal gave her a sour look. He was tired of the continued attacks and unnecessary cruelty every time she opened her mouth. He was aware he'd made an error in judgement but he'd apologized and they needed to refocus on the game. Not like she was exactly perfect either - she was the one who got the penalty. He thought about sarcastically pointing out Lindsey was repeating their prior mistake of playing it safe but decided he should try to be the bigger person for the sake of their chances.

"Alright, let's see what we can find," he said. The pair began looking through the enormous pantry for options.

"Hey, I found some cans labeled pasta sauce," Lindsey called off after a few minutes of looking. "Can you check over in the boxed stuff for pasta? Maybe we can just do that."

Cal rummaged through the boxes and soon found one containing spaghetti. He let Lindsey know and she decreed they would make pasta and sauce. Cal carried the box of pasta over to the stove and began filling a pot with water from the sink. He figured they didn't need to make a lot of pasta so he only filled the large pot about a quarter of the way so the water would boil faster. Lindsey was looking through drawers trying to find something to open the can of sauce with.

"How about this?" Cal said, holding up an old fashioned 'church key' bottle opener. "We can use the sharp end to punch a triangular hole in the top of the can." He demonstrated the technique and punched a small hole in the top of the large can.

Without comment Lindsey picked up the can and began pouring the sauce into a pot. The red tomato sauce slowly trickled out. It was relatively thin for pasta sauce but not liquid either.

"We could enlarge the opening a bit, there might be some vegetables or meat in there that doesn't fit through the hole." Cal suggested.

"I'm pretty sure whatever the hell went into these cans originally won't add much flavor, thank you for the suggestion though, chef," Lindsey replied, sarcasm oozing.

Cal turned away annoyed and went to check the water for the pasta. It was nearly boiling and he began opening the box.

"Remember to wash your hands carefully before we handle any food," Lindsey said.

Cal realized she was right. It had been awhile since he had thought that and he couldn't help himself from issuing a sarcastic reply.

"Oh, so you did learn something from last game then? Safety is serious business," he said.

Lindsey gave him a withering look but seemed to be out of mean things to say for the moment. Cal washed his hands then returned to his station and placed a modest amount of spaghetti in the water, which was now boiling. Lindsey decided that she had poured out enough sauce and also put her pot on the stove to heat up. She had found a wooden spoon to stir with at least. It looked like extremely basic tomato sauce to Cal, while this was technically a logical meal it had to be about the most boring dish he could think of. He looked around for ways to make it more interesting and remembered the small amount of produce he'd noticed earlier.

"Hey, maybe we could add a couple of fresh ingredients like the green pepper and onion to make the dish a little more flavorful," he suggested to Lindsey.

"How are we going to do that without any kind of knife? I checked everywhere, there are none," She pointed out.

"We could use that bottle opener to get the core out of the pepper and either cut it into strips or even tear them with our hands. Same deal with the onion. They'll be cooked in the sauce so the bad knife work shouldn't be a big deal. Also they know what tools they gave us, not like they can knock us for it." Cal said.

"That's a stupid idea, if you throw some big chunk in there it's going to be weird, plus I'm not sure we have enough time for them to soften and cook much, we have to be out in 18 minutes," she said, noting the time on the clock.

"We do need some spices though, I'll go look at our options, try not to burn anything," Lindsey instructed haughtily.

"Don't forget to wash your hands," Cal reminded her, again annoyed but glad Lindsey was at least making an effort to make the meal better.

Lindsey flipped him off but did go to the sink and wash her hands. She returned from the pantry a few minutes later with garlic salt, basil and a couple other spices he couldn't see the labels of. She sprinkled generous amounts into the sauce.

Cal's pasta looked like it was about done. He used a meat thermometer to fish out a noodle and test if it was. It was good, almost too cooked actually. He removed the pot from the heat and strained it - at least they had a colander - although Cal realized they probably could have used a shirt or something instead. After it had cooled for a few minutes he plated it on three of the old plastic plates they had found and rinsed earlier. Lindsey then brought over her sauce and poured it on as carefully as she could considering the ungainly large pot. Soon the plates were ready. Cal looked up at the clock, they still had about 10 minutes left.

"Should we see if we can find anything else to spice these up since we have time?" he asked.

"Nah, this is good enough, don't want it to get cold." Lindsey said, "Oh, but there is one quick thing I want to ask you before we go back out there!"

She took two handfuls of tomato sauce and slapped them into her breasts then ran her hands down the front of her shirt to her waistline, permanently staining the yellow fabric that had been the root of the whole conflict that afternoon.

"Do you still think my shirt is cute, asshole?" she asked, with a mocking expression.

Cal had had enough of her attitude, he grabbed two plates and walked out the door without a word. He didn't even care if she followed at this point, she was impossible to work with.

She did follow and they presented their pasta and sauce to the judges as 'old-fashioned camp pasta night.' Each judge took a tepid bite of the food. Cal thought it looked exactly like the low quality fare campers probably got served 30 years ago.

"Clearly a rather simple dish," Laurie started, "but that's not disqualifying, obviously the ingredients and tools we give you aren't the best. The pasta is cooked ok, perhaps a tad overdone, certainly not al dente."

"It lacks much color or panache, but I do appreciate the use of the spices, those at least give it a bit of flavor," the other woman added.

"I'm more of a texture eater, so for me this dish is quite unappetizing, it's just sort of wet," Pierre gave his thoughts. "It would have really benefited from the crunch of some vegetables cooked a bit in the sauce."

"Thank you for your efforts, Team 2." Laurie said. "Obviously we can't render final judgement or your score until we see what the other teams do. Since you've already taken your turn you are welcome to stay here and watch how the other teams perform live or you can head back to the lodge. Your only limitation is to not go past the field where we had the competition earlier, as we'll be using that area tomorrow."

"Team 3, you'll be up in 10 minutes once we've reset the kitchen," she told the waiting competitors then got up and followed Pierre into the mess hall for clean up.

"I think I'll go back to lodge for a bit, get some water, maybe a shower, then maybe come back out and see how the others do," Cal said.

"Sounds great, I'll do exactly the opposite," Lindsey replied, her voice still full of anger.

With a sigh, Cal began walking back to the lodge. He felt really hurt, not at all the unpleasant things Lindsey had said, he knew she was just saying shit to upset him and he didn't let that bother him. No, what hurt was the loss of what they'd had. Sure their impromptu shower hookup was hot, but he felt like they were developing a bond way beyond just a hookup. Solving problems, overcoming obstacles, achieving victories using their skills, smarts and athleticism while working together - he had been having the time of his life. Having all that evaporate in the course of a few minutes because of a mistake he made, hurt.

He briefly contemplated just leaving camp without a word. Maybe that would show Lindsey, but he didn't like to think of himself as a quitter and his logical side reminded him that they still had the lead and, even in a worse case scenario, would go into tomorrow tied for it. It would be stupid to give up now and that was not the kind of man he wanted to be, he decided. Getting Lindsey refocused? Well that would be a lot tougher.

------------------D2S22----------------(L)

Lindsey watched Cal leave with a lot of mixed emotions. Part of her was pleased she had 'won' the fight; he deserved to feel like a worm after what he had done. However, she also knew she was being ridiculous. Cal had apologized sincerely. Despite her frustration with him, she was confident he was genuinely sorry and understood his mistake. Although she had gotten a perverse pleasure from continuing to rub his nose in the dirt (not literally this time) as she calmed down she knew she was just being mean spirited and had long since made her point.

'I have got to get better about forgiving people' she thought to herself, understanding her weakness.

Pierre and Laurie returned from cleaning the cabin and sat back down at the table and re-opened their laptops.

"Feel free to come sit where you can see, Lindsey," Laurie invited her. "There's basically no way you can influence what happens from here so you're welcome to watch with us and hang out."

Lindsey moved her chair closer so she could see over Laurie and the mystery woman's shoulders. The picture on the laptop was impressively clear. The camp obviously hadn't skimped on camera technology. It appeared there was no sound though.

"No sound, right?" Lindsey asked.

"Nope, we don't want to be truly monitoring you. I think you know by now but we're all about creative solutions, we just have to protect ourselves, you know?" Laurie explained.

On screen it wasn't completely clear but it actually seemed like Stefan was taking charge and directing Annie. That was interesting to Lindsey; it had seemed like Annie was largely the one in their relationship to call the shots. Perhaps she had judged things incorrectly or perhaps cooking just happened to Stefan's forte so he was leading this effort. The pair carefully washed their hands, looking at a camera meaningfully then got to work. The married couple had cleaned up a bit while Lindsey and Cal were attempting to cook but both still clearly showed stains of the previous challenge.

Stefan ran to the freezer and began filling a large pot with ice. Annie was sorting through cans looking for ingredients. Once Stefan's pot was mostly full of ice he began filling it with water and once it was about half full he put it back in the freezer.

"I wonder what the heck they're going to do with all that ice and water," Laurie mused.

"Yeah, I'm not really following that logic," the other woman answered. "How have they played so far this weekend?"

"I would say decently," Laurie responded. "They're in last place but only by a point. They've had some pretty creative strategies actually, just their execution isn't great and they're not the most gifted athletes. This game is better suited for their talents."

On screen Stefan was warming something up in a saucepan and Annie was opening several large cans using the same technique Cal had.

"Is it normal for you guys to color commentate these competitions?" Lindsey asked. She was a bit surprised, she had been thinking of Laurie and Pierre as sort of all-knowing judges up until this point.

"Oh absolutely, honestly I think our favorite part of this camp is seeing all the ways teams come up with to solve our challenges. We see something new almost every week," Lindsey said.

"Yeah, we love it when teams come up with a unique approach to a challenge," Pierre said. "I think the most fun we have is when a team comes up with an approach that we never even considered. That probably happens once every two or three weeks, it's always neat to watch."

"That's cool," Lindsey said, "how are we stacking up so far?"

"Hmmm," Pierre answered, looking thoughtful, "do you mean you personally or your group as a whole?"

"Well both, I guess," Lindsey answered.

"Ok, well I don't want to give my impressions of your team's performance just yet as it might influence how you prepare for tomorrow, but I will say that the scoreboard somewhat speaks for itself," Pierre said. "As far as your group overall, I think it's fair to say we're impressed. These 'first timer' groups can be really hit or miss. We get some where it just seems like everyone struggles to complete the challenge, we actually had to cancel the fourth Saturday challenge in one session last summer because the teams took so long doing the first three and we ran out of daylight. That's actually why we're doing this cooking one last today - because if it gets too late we can just turn the lights on since it's inside.

"This group though, we've seen several really interesting strategies, so that's been fun. The finish to the race to town and back too, wow. I know we said it earlier, but I'll reiterate, it's quite rare for finishes to be that close."

"Nice, well I'm glad we're stacking up," Lindsey said, "any brand new strategies you've seen so far?"

"I guess it's ok to answer that one," Laurie replied, glancing at Pierre who subtly nodded his agreement. "For our first game this morning with the hostage escort, we've seen all manner of items turned into projectiles in the time we've been running that one. However we've never had a team wear darned near every thing they brought like these two did," she gestured towards the couple on screen whose dish seemed to be progressing nicely. Annie was mashing fruit in a bowl with her bare hands - Lindsey couldn't even begin to imagine what the purpose of that was aside from making a huge mess - although knowing Annie perhaps that was reason enough. Stefan was carefully adding ingredients to his saucepan and adjusting the heat periodically.

"Has smuggling a credit card like the ladies did in that town race happened before? I thought that was quite clever," the other woman asked. Lindsey still didn't know her name and between how animated she'd been earlier and the time that had passed she now felt too awkward to introduce herself.

"No, it hasn't. I'm not sure how I feel about that one, to be honest," Pierre replied. "Our philosophy is typically that we don't make too many rules, but I don't love it when spending money to win becomes part of the equation."

"Oh come on P, part of the fun is seeing how teams get around our guidelines," Laurie said with a smile. "Plus how are you going to enforce that, we going to start patting down and strip searching everyone before every game?"

Before Pierre could respond the mystery woman butted in. "Look at that, I get the ice now, they've made a sort of jury-rigged blast chiller, that's neat!"

On the screen Annie and Stefan had combined their ingredients into a bowl, then carefully placed it in the semi-frozen pot they had just removed from the freezer. Once they were sure none of the freezing water would get into the bowl they placed it back into the freezer.

"Did they just make jello?" Laurie asked.

"Yeah but they put a ton of other stuff into it, so let's not pre-judge. I'm not sure if it will set in time anyway, but that's certainly a bit different," the mystery woman answered.

"Wow, we forgot there was even jello in there," Pierre said. "That could date all the way back to when this was the mess hall for the scout camp, but I guess the powder doesn't go bad or anything."

On the screen Annie had gone to gather more cans while Stefan leaned against the counter with a bemused expression. Lindsey noted they still had over 10 minutes left and wondered if they were going to try to make a second dish, she hoped not - she felt moderately confident her basic pasta dish could beat out jello, but wasn't sure if they made something more interesting. Annie came back grinning after a few minutes, her arms full of large cans, and deposited them on the counter. It was hard to tell without sound, but the couple seemed to be having a good natured disagreement about something. When the clock was down to 5 minutes remaining, Stefan removed their bowl from the freezer and tested their food to see if it had set. Seemingly satisfied he plated three servings with Annie's help.

"Wow, and done 5 minutes early, not bad" Laurie commented, "hope it tastes more interesting than jello."

To Lindsey's surprise, rather than bringing out their dish for tasting, the couple had resumed their debate.Stefan was gesticulating towards the camera but Annie seemed to be goading him into something. After a few moments he finally made a gesture of surrender and Annie began enthusiastically opening more cans. Lindsey couldn't figure out what their purpose might be, a garnish perhaps?

"Oh my, are they really going to do this now, while they know people are watching?" the woman asked.

"Honestly, these two are something else, it would be pretty on brand for them so far," Laurie answered.

On the screen Annie had turned away from Stefan. He picked up a can and used one hand to pull out the waistband of her tight shorts and poured something over her butt. Lindsey couldn't tell exactly what it was because Stefan was cradling the big can to his torso but Annie's shorts clearly darkened and filled with something. Annie turned around with a huge smile on her face and passionately kissed Stefan. Then she stepped back and pulled the front of her waistband away from her stomach with an excited look. Stefan took another can - Lindsey could read the label on this one, it was canned fruit cocktail - and poured that into the front of her shorts. Lindsey could see the material of the shorts become wet again. They also seemed to have a lumpy texture, she realized that was the pieces of fruit. 'How the heck must that feel' she thought to herself. She was initially repulsed, she disliked Annie and years of conditioning to avoid getting food on herself kicked in. There was a little something scratching the back of her mind though. Twice today already she had been as dirty as she'd ever been in her life. Heck she was currently sitting around in a permanently stained t-shirt and that was no big deal. Maybe this was fun?

On screen Annie was pressing her fruit filled shorts into herself, clearly enjoying the feeling. She gestured to her cleavage. Stefan glanced at the clock, they still had 3 minutes so with a wry smile he grabbed another can, olive oil it appeared this time, and began pouring over Annie's small breasts. Her purple top darkened as the oil seeped down her body. She dropped to her knees and moved her head under the stream of oil, throwing her hair back as if showering and shampooing it into her hair. When the can was empty she sprung to her feet, jumped into her much taller husbands' arms and gave him a huge kiss, wrapping her legs and arms around him in a full body hug.

'Whoa, that's something,' Lindsey thought to herself. She had to admit the passion these two displayed was kind of hot. But getting coated in food, that was a little weird. She tried to remember what the term was that Bailey had used last night. WAM? Wet and messy, that was it. Well that certainly fit how Team 3 looked as they emerged from the cabin holding their dishes with big smiles. Annie looked slick from head to toe - the effects of the oil mainly plus whatever juices from the canned fruit were running down her legs. Her dark hair had a bright sheen from the oil and her pale skin shone in the late afternoon sunlight. Despite her dislike for the girl, Lindsey had to admit she thought it was a pretty good look. The lumpy texture of her tight shorts was also obvious. Lindsey knew from earlier that Annie wasn't wearing any underwear, she wondered how that whole situation felt.

Stefan's clothes had absorbed a good bit of oil from Annie's embrace as well. The biggest surprise to Lindsey was that he, despite making an effort to hide it, was also rather clearly aroused. It made sense when she thought about it, she just hadn't thought of him as the co-conspirator with Annie given his quiet personality.

The couple presented their dish as a 'chilled orange salad' to the judges.

"Oh my, this is actually quite good," Laurie said after taking her first bite. Lindsey's heart sank, this wasn't good.

"I have to agree," said Pierre.

"Mmmm yes, it certainly is," said the other, still nameless, woman. "My only real critique is that the portion is a bit small and I would classify this as dessert rather than a full meal."

"Yes, that's fair," agreed Laurie, "and while that might hurt them against some of the upcoming teams, I do think this clearly surpasses Team 2, the flavor is clearly superior."

Pierre and the other woman nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, congratulations Team 3, you're in first for now and will get at least one point from this challenge. You are welcome to join Lindsey in the peanut gallery and watch the last two teams or you can head back to the lodge or do whatever you like. Your only limitation is to not go past the field where we had the tractor competition," Laurie said.

"Ahem, thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed our dish," Stefan said. "I think we will go back to the lodge for a bit and recharge."

He seemed a bit uncomfortable, Lindsey thought. She supposed that made sense, probably hoping nobody was noticing his arousal and embarrassed that he was in front of others.

Annie, never one to pass up an opportunity, began sensually rubbing her backside into Stefan.

"Recharge? Do you perhaps mean discharge, dear?" she asked with a giggle, then took off at a run towards the lodge. Shaking his head, but clearly smiling to himself, Stefan trudged after her.

"There will be a briefing tonight at 2030!" Laurie called after them, and shook her head at the outrageous pair.

"Oh to be young again," lamented Pierre, clearly amused. "Let's go get things prepped for Round 3, Laur," he said. Nodding, Laurie followed her husband back into the mess hall to reset the game.

"I fucking hate them," Lindsey growled.

"Why is that?" the other woman asked in a calm voice.

"They don't take this game seriously, it's like this weird fucking sex romp for them, it's ridiculous," Lindsey stated.

"Yet if my understanding is correct they've beaten you in two games in a row and you barely beat them in the one before that," the lady countered. "Perhaps you should consider why that is."

Lindsey scowled but didn't reply. She hated to admit but this random lady was right. Why the hell was she suddenly losing to an annoying bitch like Annie?

---------------------D2S23--------------------------------(C)

Back at the main lodge, Cal was feeling a bit more centered, if not necessarily happy. He had taken a pleasantly cool shower and changed into clean, comfortable clothes for the evening. He spent a few minutes on his phone, checking the news and sports scores, but decided what he really needed for a mental reset was to get lost in a book. Cal had always been an avid reader; he loved a good story. He liked to just read for what was next and follow the author's plot to its conclusion. Since he'd been a teenager, stopping to read a book had always been the best way for him to mentally reset and give him perspective in difficult situations.

He had barely made it a chapter when he was interrupted by a knock at the door to his room. He shouted 'come in' hoping that Lindsey had finally come to her senses. Instead he was surprised to see Annie standing in his doorway. Her appearance was hard to look away from, despite the fact he'd briefly seen her naked earlier this afternoon. First, she appeared to be absolutely soaked, although that made no sense really since she wasn't dripping or anything. She had rolled up the lower part of her top and rolled down the straps so that the garment was functionally a bandeau covering her small breasts and basically nothing else. She had rolled the waistline of her shorts down to below her hip bone and the spandex garment was barely covering her pubic area.

"Like what you see?" Annie asked, suggestively. "It's oil since I can tell you're wondering. Not sure if you can make it out but my shorts are filled with squishy food too. I know you secretly get the WAM thing so you know how I'm feeling, especially since you're aware I'm not wearing any panties.

"Seems like you had a bit of a falling out with your teammate, I'm really sorry about that, I know you had something going with her for a minute. Wanted to let you know that Stef and I are going to be having some messy, naughty fun next door and that my offer to join in still stands. It can be our little secret," she said with a flirty smile and wave before disappearing next door.

Cal was in shock. He had to admit Annie's offer was a little enticing, but he just didn't think he was in the right headspace for something like that right now. Plus, as angry as he was at Lindsey, getting involved with Annie felt like it would be the ultimate betrayal. No way they could come back if he did that. Besides, he laughed to himself, 'are you really going to have your first WAM experience and your first threesome on the same day? With people you barely know to boot.' That didn't seem like the best idea.

Knowing from earlier experience things were about to get loud next door, and not interested in being an auditory voyeur, Cal decided the best plan was to head downstairs. He grabbed a spot on one of the porch swings outside and read a couple more chapters of his book before deciding it was about time to head back to the mess hall and see how things were going.

Cal walked up and tentatively grabbed a chair to sit next to Lindsey, who was sitting behind the judges - Laurie, Pierre, and the mystery woman from earlier. Cal still hadn't caught her name. The group was watching on a pair of laptops as Bailey and Cara worked in the kitchen. It was pretty clear to Cal within a minute that the women from Team 4 were both confident in the kitchen and working together like a well-oiled machine.

"We certainly shouldn't pre-judge or anything, but these two sure do look like they know what they're doing in the kitchen, don't they?" Laurie noted.

"Yeah, I agree, they sure look like they have done this a time or two. What's their backstory anyway? How have they performed this weekend?" the mystery lady asked.

"Quite well, actually," Pierre answered, "they are in second place coming in to this challenge. I think in a lot of 'first timer' competitions they'd probably be out front but they have to compete with these two maniacs," he gestured at Lindsey and Cal affectionately. "They have scored points in every game but have yet to win one, I think to a large degree consistency is sometimes a better indicator of overall skill personally."

"That makes sense to me, are they a couple?" the lady asked.

"Honestly, we're not completely sure," Laurie replied this time. "I think they probably are, but they put 'very close friends' on their entry form and who am I to judge? Just a guess, but I'm guessing they weren't sure how accepting a competition like this might be for LGBTQ players so they didn't want to say for sure. Kind of a bummer to me, you obviously know we're extremely judgement-free here, but I guess we have to be fair, we're not exactly in the most accepting region of America. I can understand their reticence."

"How are things going?" Cal whispered to Lindsey. He hoped she would respond...surely enough time had passed to cool down. She looked at him and just shook her head forlornly, despair in her eyes.

"Not good. Stefan and Annie beat us and this is not looking good at all," Lindsey answered in a low voice.

That was bad news, Cal thought. But at least on the positive side Lindsey wasn't being awful towards him. Small steps.

"Oh my, are they actually tidying up?" Pierre asked, drawing Cal's attention back to the laptop screen. "That's awesome, certainly a rarity in this competition."

Cal glanced at Lindsey. They didn't even have to exchange words; they had plenty of time to clean up but neither of them thought of it because they were so busy bickering. What a wasted opportunity.

Bailey and Cara emerged carrying hearty bowls of spaghetti with sauce and presented their dish as 'Grandma's spaghetti'. Apparently it was loosely based on a recipe passed down from one of Bailey's grandparents. If the visual evidence wasn't enough, Cal knew he and Lindsey were beaten as soon as he caught a whiff of the delicious seasoning wafting from the bowls. The judges quickly confirmed his expectations, telling the ladies how good their food was and declaring them comfortably into provisional first place. Laurie ate nearly her entire bowl before Pierre gently pointed out they still had another team to go.

Laurie issued the now familiar invitation to hang out and watch the rest of the competition, which Cara and Bailey eagerly accepted. Laurie and Pierre went into the building to do their cleanup and prep routine.

"Congrats, you two," Cal said, "that was impressive. Guess it will all come down to tomorrow now."

"Thanks," Cara replied with a smile, "I think we had a bit of an advantage in this one because we love to cook, do it together all the time."

"What do you mean it will all come down to tomorrow?" Bailey asked.

"I was just doing the math and realized how the guys do is kind of moot," Cal explained. "We came in 3 points ahead of you gals, you've now made up two, so regardless of what they do we'll either be tied or we'll be up one. With tomorrow being worth double points it comes down to a head to head between us."

Lindsey groaned and put her head in her hands. Apparently she hadn't made that connection yet.

"You're righttt," Cara replied tentatively, "but you're also assuming tomorrow's scoring will be straightforward, has much about this camp struck you as straightforward?"

"Ha, you make a very good point," Cal laughed, "I guess we will just have to see how it plays out."

"Since this round doesn't really matter, I'm going to head back to the lodge and wash off before dinner. Maybe rediscover my dignity while I'm at it," Lindsey said glumly and rose from her chair.

"Careful, you might get propositioned," Cal called to her. He thought his tone was light hearted.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Lindsey asked, acid in her tone.

"Uhh, just that Annie..." he stammered.

"You're truly fucking disgusting!" Lindsey cut him off and then stalked off.

Cal exchanged shocked looks with Cara and Bailey.

"Um, was I out of line there? Please be honest with me," Cal said.

"No, not at all," Bailey reassured him. "I guess maybe that was a little bit off kilter, but we know Annie's kind of out there. Wait, did she do that to you?"

"Yeah, she actually has twice now," Cal answered.

"You didn't, you know, accept, did you?" Cara asked.

"Oh gosh no," Cal replied. He didn't think it would be a good idea to mention he had been a little tempted.

"What's going on with y'all anyway?" Bailey asked. She did seem to be a direct type. Both the teammates kind of were. "You two were like best buds at lunch today, we had a great time. And now Linds is like this dark cloud and you look like someone kicked your dog. What gives?"

Cal sighed and thought about how to answer. He figured it would be best to be mostly honest but maybe he'd leave out the part about their little tryst in the shower, that seemed like something maybe it was not right to share yet. Perhaps Cara and Bailey could give him some helpful advice.

"So I have, or maybe had, a little bit of a crush on Lindsey," he began.

"We are truly shocked," Cara interrupted, hand to her chest in a gesture of sarcastic surprise. Bailey giggled.

"Ok, ok, I'm sure that was a little obvious," Cal continued, blushing slightly. "So you remember at lunch when she was worrying about not having enough clothes? Between that and how incredibly cute she looked in that yellow shirt I got it in my head she couldn't get dirty in the last game. So I kind of faked that the strategy of just levering the tire off the rim wasn't viable - what Team 1 ended up doing to win the round. She figured that out and yeah, it wasn't pretty."

He went on to explain some of the vitriol Lindsey had sent his way and how their attempt at cooking had unraveled and how Lindsey had ended up ruining the shirt in question anyway just to spite him.

"Jeeeez, dude, that sounds kind of insane," Bailey said, clearly a little astounded at the turn things had taken. "I can see why you're sitting here trying to figure out what hit you. I guess Lindsey is right...you did kind of do the wrong thing by deciding she needed to be protected or whatever, but her response seems like a wild overreaction."

"This is my Machiavellian side kicking in, but the other thing I have to point out is that even if you hadn't worried about that it probably wouldn't have changed the result," Cara added. "If you had done that you would've been on the same strategy as Team 1. No offense or anything, but at that point I don't see how you get a half full tire down to the creek, get the requisite weight in it and get it back faster than them. Those guys are idiots but they are very strong.

"I guess there's some chance you beat us, but they barely got us. Honestly we considered both strategies at the start and just figured we'd do the opposite. When they started going after that thing we decided to try ours. We would have liked to have won, but it worked out ok. Point is: she was mad at you for basically nothing."

"And let's not forget, you still would have gotten third and a point if not for the safety penalty," Bailey added. "Which as things stand now is kind of a big deal for the overall score."

"Sorry, I feel like we're being really harsh here, while I guess you sort of had the original sin, the reaction is absurd. Not to mention that some of the stuff she said to you is just fucked up. That's not stuff you should really ever say to anybody, much lest a friend or teammate," the blonde continued.

"Thank you guys," Cal said, a little choked up with emotion, "I have felt awful about this whole thing, so I definitely appreciate your support."

Without exchanging any words Bailey and Cara rose from their seats and surrounded Cal in a group hug. He had to do his best to not break down in tears, but he was a guy who had swallowed tough emotions his whole life so he bit his lip and embraced the two women, wordlessly thanking them for their kindness.

"Whoa, are you all okay?" Laurie asked. Apparently she had returned from setup but hadn't heard the conversation.

"Oh yeah, just discussing how much of a cunt Lindsey is," the mystery lady replied calmly.

"Pardon me, but who in the fuck are you anyway, ma'am?" Bailey inquired, aggressively.

Laurie looked horrified. Cal cringed a little at Bailey's harsh question, knowing how friendly the woman had been earlier. But at least maybe he could learn her name without it being too awkward now.

"Well nice to meet you too, Bailey, my name is Gloria," the woman said. Her expression betrayed no anger or hostility as far as Cal could tell. "My husband and friends are past champions and are staying at the guest lodge this week. Sometimes the guests are invited to judge or observe challenges, which is why I was a judge of your fine cuisine. Nice to know that the sharpness of your cooking skills matches the sharpness of your tongue."

"Oh, uh, I'm sorry," Bailey said in a quiet voice, clearly embarrassed by her outburst at the camp's equivalent of a celebrity.

"Don't be sorry," Gloria said, "in my world people, but particularly women, need to have backbones of steel to succeed. I understand you were sticking up for someone you consider a friend and would expect no less."

Bailey nodded her thanks at Gloria's words.

"And here comes Team 1," Pierre refocused everyone's attention as Tommy and Dillon walked up to the mess hall. "Gentlemen, you know the rules, the kitchen is set for you, any questions?"

"No, thank you, we're excited to get started," Dillon answered.

"Alright then, the clock is ticking, good luck!" said Laurie.

Even these idiots were getting into the swing of things Cal observed as the guys hustled into the building. They probably did gain some confidence from winning the last game. Bailey and Cara had retaken their seats next to him behind the three judges.

"Alright, so give me the scouting report on these two," Gloria asked Laurie and Pierre.

"Eh, you know the type," Pierre answered, "thought this was a purely physical competition. Didn't realize strategy and teamwork are equally important and have struggled accordingly. Seems like we have at least one team like this every new player session. To their credit, they do seem to be learning at least a little bit and they did win our tractor challenge."

"I've been meaning to ask you, what hell is this 'tractor challenge' you all did anyway?" Gloria said. "I've never heard of that one and you guys know I've been through my fair share of these."

"Ha, that's the understatement of the weekend," Laurie said. "So we legitimately needed to change out the tires on the tractors for new ones and add ballast, so we made it into a challenge for the teams. Not sure it was all that successful, at the very least we need to revisit the rules because now we've got some tires with beet juice some with water, some with a mixture. Not really sure what the freezing point for them will be, which is obviously not ideal with how cold it gets up here in winter."

"Wait, hold on," Cara inserted herself in the conversation, "I have so many questions. First, is this analyzing the teams and talking shop the norm?"

"Oh heck yeah," Laurie answered, "we told Lindsey this earlier but honestly it's our favorite part of this whole thing along with seeing all the strategies y'all come up with."

"Second question, this is for you, Gloria, you sound like you've been doing this for years, is that allowed?" Cara continued.

"For sure, I love this place, we compete every year," Gloria replied.

"She's being modest," Laurie pointed out, "Gloria and her husband hold the record for most consecutive years winning a competition, this was their 15th year. They've won in all kinds of different formats too, it's quite remarkable. Usually they don't even have to compete twice to earn a week."

"You can compete more than once a year?" Bailey asked.

"Well yeah," Pierre said, "we are at some level trying to be a profitable business, why would we turn away customers?"

This all made sense, Cal thought to himself, he had just not considered it.

"Alright, now what I really want to know is, what was the scouting report on us?" Cara queried.

"Oh, I was here for this," Cal exclaimed, "they said you are doing really well and would be winning a lot of weeks."

"We may be winning or at least tied for it in," Bailey glanced at the clock, "22 minutes."

"Touche," Cal admitted.

"Not to distract from this lovely discussion," Pierre said, drawing everyone's attention, "but I think these two are attempting one of the more audacious things I've ever seen in this kitchen - they are trying to make a pizza in 30 minutes from scratch! Clearly I massively undersold them earlier."

"There's no way that's possible!" Bailey exclaimed, "I've made dough from scratch before, no way it will rise in time."

"And that, my friends, is the beauty of this game," Laurie said, a big smile on her face, "we see something new almost every week. Will they pull it off? No idea, but love to see something new tried."

Conversation devolved into a discussion of the probability of the guys pulling it off and then migrated towards some of the other strategies that Gloria, Laurie and Pierre had been impressed with so far this weekend. Cal realized that Bailey and Cara definitely knew their way around a kitchen from how they talked about making dough and then the process of making the actual pizza. He was also fascinated by the analysis of the strategies. He could suddenly see where he and Lindsey had been brilliant and monumentally stupid. It reminded him of playing pub trivia and feeling stupid when the answers were revealed and you found out which questions you were close to figuring out.

The guys waited until the absolute last minute to pull their pizza from the oven. It looked pretty damn good to Cal, they'd found plenty of cheese and added some of the remaining veggies, it was actually making him a little hungry. That made him think back to lunch, he had also been sitting with Cara and Bailey then...and Lindsey. How times had changed.

They walked out and presented the food. Dillon was surprisingly candid with the judges: "Hi judges, we admit we took a risk on this. My grandma has a 20 minute pizza dough recipe, we figured we'd give it a shot even though the timing didn't exactly work. Go big or go home, right? The middle may be a little bit raw so be careful."

With that the judges began to take slices and sample them. It was pretty immediately obvious that the middle was not underdone, it was hardly cooked at all.

"So look, clearly you didn't have enough time to pull this off properly," Gloria said, holding up a chunk of uncooked dough, "but the parts that are cooked are freaking delicious."

"Tommy, aren't you the one from New York, why was Dillon taking the lead on this, isn't NYC the pizza capital of the world?" Laurie asked.

"Oh don't get us wrong, the dough was me, toppings were all T-bone," Dillon answered on his teammates behalf.

"Well you did a great job, this outside part that cooked and this thin crust, is outstanding, amongst the best food that's ever come out of that kitchen," Laurie said. Tommy and Dillon beamed.

"Unfortunately, we obviously can't give you anything like full credit," Pierre brought the mood down a bit, "since not all of your dish is edible, but this is a commendable effort. What do you think Laurie and Gloria, how does this rank?"

"Well it's clearly better than the slop Cal and Lindsey gave us, sorry no offense Cal," Gloria said, glancing at him. That didn't feel great, but he acknowledged it was fair criticism.

"And I think it's clearly not on par with Team 4 since they gave us a high quality dish that was actually fully done," Laurie added. "So it really comes down to this partially finished, but delicious, food vs. the also quite tasty, and finished, dessert Team 3 gave us."

"It's a tough call but I think we have to give it to Team 3, it's easy to forget since it's been an hour but theirs was very good and it was finished," Pierre said.

Gloria and Laurie nodded in agreement.

"Sorry guys, I feel like shit giving you a third place for taking this big a risk but ultimately it didn't pay off," Laurie said, "thank you for your efforts."

Dillon and Tommy looked dejected but nodded their acceptance of the judges' ruling.

"Alright, we'll do our briefing for tomorrow at 2030 once all of you have had a chance to wash up and get some dinner of your own," Pierre told them. "Please let the trio who are not here know the schedule. See you soon."

Cal, Bailey and Cara offered their congratulations to Tommy and Dillon. The pair seemed to take their loss well, they seemed to be growing into the spirit of the camp a bit. Or at least Dillon was. Tommy still seemed like he thought he was better than everybody. They all headed back towards the main lodge. There was a lot of chat about cooking and they realized that all 5 of them enjoyed it to various degrees. They decided to meet in 30 minutes to cook a group dinner.

Cal mulled what to do with himself in the interim while the others went to shower. Go up to their room and see how Lindsey was doing or just wait downstairs? He very badly wanted to find a resolution to the conflict with Lindsey, but he also did not want to interact with her if she was going to continue being a complete asshole. He decided to leave her alone for now. Maybe she would emerge with a more reasonable attitude. Plus he was enjoying the company of the others, Bailey and Cara in particular, but even the rest of the competitors weren't so awful. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and the book he'd left downstairs earlier and relaxed.

Dillon came down about 15 minutes later and greeted him with a 'sup bro' before grabbing a beer of his own.

"Mind if I join ya, man?" he asked.

"Yeah, go for it. Congrats again on your big afternoon. Back in the game now," Cal said and clinked bottles with Dillon.

"Thanks bro, I know we're kind of meatheads out here but we're trying to learn a little," Dillon said.

"Well fair play, you've beaten us the last two games," Cal pointed out.

"Still down by 3 points, so I think we have to beat you by two spots tomorrow to win, right? And to make it tougher we have to beat the carpet munchers by 3 too so we have to win and need help from the nymphos to win overall," Dillon stated.

"Well your team descriptions are crass as fuck, but assuming the 'carpet munchers'", Cal made an air quotes gesture, "and the 'nymphos," he repeated the gesture, "are Teams 4 and 3, then yes you are correct, albeit reinforcing your meathead stereotype."

"Shit, I'm really sorry bro, I should know better." Dillon said, looking ashamed. "It's not an excuse but I get around my frat brothers and I swear I regress 10 years. I will try to cut that shit out."

"I'd appreciate that, dude," Cal replied, "let's be real - what Annie and Stefan have going on is a little off, but Bailey and Cara are cool as shit and judging people based on their presumed sexual orientation is really inappropriate in any case. You might want to think about how toxic influences in your life impact your thinking."

Cal was not happy with Dillon but the man seemed genuinely remorseful about his inappropriate comments so he decided to leave it at that. They made small talk for a few minutes about where they were from and how the Cincinnati Reds - Dillon's home town team - had a hell of a farm system and might finally be good in the near future.

Soon the rest of the competitors began arriving downstairs, aside from Lindsey who still hadn't made an appearance, and dinner preparations began. Realizing there was a literal 'too many cooks in the kitchen' situation developing, Cal appointed himself bartender and offered to make everyone drinks and took the group's requests. Cara and Bailey both just wanted white wine, but Tommy and Dillon asked for rum and cokes. Cal made their drinks nice and strong with an eye towards hurting their performance tomorrow. Stefan declined a drink saying he needed to rehydrate and Annie asked for a cosmo.

Stefan explained that his aunt was a pastry chef and offered to focus on preparing a dessert while the others worked on the main course. The group agreed to make chicken tacos for the entree. Cal remembered from their conversation last night that Cara had mentioned her parents heritage was Hispanic and Bailey talking about how good their traditional recipes were, so he was looking forward to the food.

Unfortunately the collegial atmosphere began to unravel quickly. Tommy's self-confidence, already high to begin with, went up further as he raced through his strong mixed drink. He began complimenting Cara's culinary choices but mixed in subtle critiques. After a few minutes of this back and forth Cal realized that Tommy was trying to hit on Cara by 'negging' her. 'What a freaking neanderthal,' he thought to himself. He looked at Bailey and she looked like she was about ready to give up on chopping vegetables and put the knife she was holding to use chopping up annoying men.

Cal tried to think of a way he could intervene on his friends' behalf but before he could think of something Annie sidled up and requested another drink. She was effusive in her praise for his mixologist skills and began rubbing his arm. Rather than go back to helping in the kitchen or helping her husband she hung around talking to him. She talked about how wonderful the camp was and how much fun she was having there. Her double entendres were not subtle. By this point Cal understood that Stefan and Annie had anything but a traditional marriage, but her aggressively and blatantly flirting with him while her husband was in the room was still tough for him to get his mind around. He looked over to Stefan, hoping for a way to extricate himself from the uncomfortable situation. The big man didn't notice, seemingly absorbed in the dish he was preparing.

"Oh, don't worry about Stefan," Annie noted Cal's look, "he loves to show me off and share me."

"Annie, I've already passed on sex with you twice and had a pretty terrible afternoon on top of that, what makes you think now my mind has suddenly changed?" Cal asked, he couldn't keep the frustration out of his tone.

"Ugh, but you're the only other fun guy here," she said in a whiny voice, "let me cheer you up."

"Guess I'm not as much fun as you think," he pointed out.

"I know you are though, why can't you just loosen up and admit it?" she inquired. Her voice was still whiny.

Cal had had enough, even if he had been tempted by Annie a few times her pushiness was a huge turn off now.

"Pardon me, I need to use the restroom," he lied, needing an excuse to disengage. He splashed some cold water on his face in the restroom and took a few minutes to compose himself.

He walked back into the main room but found the situation had devolved into a shouting match. Bailey had apparently had enough of Tommy's antics and was yelling at him to stop creeping on Cara. Tommy replied by asking why she cared so much and called her a dyke. Bailey looked like she was about to take a swing at him when, to Cal's surprise, it was Stefan who intervened.

"That's enough, that is not a word I want to hear used in that derogatory tone," the big man bellowed, turning away from the station where he had been working. To that point in the weekend everything Stefan had said had been soft spoken as far as Cal could remember; this was anything but. His tone was loud and authoritative. Between the tone and who it came from, it seemed like everyone was in shock for a moment.

Deciding this was a moment to show where he stood, literally, Cal walked over to Stefan and stood next to him. The positioning of the counter in the room partially blocked the entrance and Tommy whirled to face them.

"Oh, you two fudgepackers wanna get involved in this too eh? Don't think me and Dillon can't take pussies like you, right Dillon?" sneered Tommy.

Cal gave Dillon a hard look. He hoped he was thinking about their conversation from an hour ago.

"Uh, honestly T, what you're saying is kinda fucked up. When we negged girls to get laid and used slurs in college to put down people so we could get our way it was immature and that was 10 years ago now. I think we need to think about being a little more in the adult, modern world," Dillon said. His tone was a little embarrassed but also firm. Cal made eye contact with him and nodded in appreciation.

"Tommy, maybe it's time for you to grab a bit of fresh air," Stefan suggested, returning to his gentler tone.

"Whatever, I need to go burn one anyway," Tommy muttered and walked out of the kitchen grabbing his pack of cigarettes.

The tension in the room lifted.

"Thank you for supporting me, Cal and Dillon, I appreciate it," Stefan said and gave the two men sincere looks.

"And that, my friends, is why I love my husband," Annie exclaimed, "he has a bright, shiny, spine of steel."

She walked up to Stefan and pulled the tall man down to give him a big kiss. Cal smiled at the interaction, the episode had shed a lot of light on their seemingly odd marriage. Cal recognized that Stefan was just a man comfortable in his own skin, and one who knew when to take a stand when he saw something he felt was wrong.

With Tommy out of the equation the cooking went a lot smoother. Cara and Dillon finished prepping the chicken while Bailey finished chopping up toppings. Soon the six of them were sitting down to a delicious street taco-style meal. Everyone was enormously complimentary of the food.

"Your abuela would be proud of this meal," Bailey pointed out and Cara blushed but it was obvious she really appreciated everyone's praise.

Next Stefan brought out the custard tarts he had prepared for dessert. Tasting those brought another round of hearty compliments and it was the big man's turn to beam with pride at his culinary skills.

"There are some additional perks to being married to him, this would be one," Annie said to laughter from the rest of the group.

The meal was drawing to a close and clean up was beginning when they were interrupted by Laurie, Pierre and Tommy entering the lodge. Cal assumed they had found Tommy sulking outside and invited him back in for their briefing. The group gathered in the lounge area to hear what was in store for tomorrow.

"Where's Lindsey?" Pierre asked and everyone looked at Cal.

He shrugged, "I haven't seen her, I assumed in her room, nobody saw?"

"Door was closed," Cara said, "we didn't want to intrude."

"Alright, well it's not a big deal," Laurie told them, "tomorrow's game is relatively straightforward so Cal can explain it to her later. That said, this is our finale and it will challenge your stamina, teamwork, and problem solving skills.

"Before we jump into the explanation let's go over the scores as it's been an up and down day for several teams. We actually have two ties right now. Our leaders - Teams 2 and 4 - are tied with 9 points, while the other two teams are tied with 6. Since tomorrow is worth double points that does mean you are all mathematically alive for the overall victory, although Teams 1 and 3, you guys will need a bit of help since you need to beat both 2 and 4 by two places in order to overtake them.

"We have decided to award a second place prize after some more thought and with how tight things are this weekend. The second place team will get a gift card to cover brunch at the Little Smoky tomorrow after we wrap up. Any questions on scoring?"

There were none.

"Great, let's get into tomorrow's competition. It is our classic finale - the triathlon. The first leg will begin on the main field where this whole thing began yesterday. From there you will run all the way around the lake to the opposite side. You will see poles with orange flags atop them. You must enter the lake there and swim back across to the dock," Laurie explained.

"The second leg will take place in the mess hall," Pierre picked up with the explanation, "however unlike today where you were working in the kitchen, tomorrow you will be in that large room you had to cross to reach the kitchen - that was the actual dining area when this was a camp. We have set up 8 stationary bicycles in that room, one for each of you. We have calibrated the bikes based on the weight you provided on your entry form. Each of you will have to ride the equivalent of 20 miles, but since the bikes are calibrated based on your weight each of you will be outputting the same amount of energy per pound, so nobody will have an unfair advantage based on their size."

Cal smiled inwardly at that, it would give him a big advantage since he wasn't a huge guy but knew his way around a bike. He wasn't into the super structured training a lot of his more race-oriented friends did, but he understood the basic concepts of power to weight ratio and knew he should do well.

"After you finish your ride you will head out and meet Pierre in the clearing outside the mess half for next steps," Laurie said. "One important thing to note: for the first two legs you are practically competing as individuals, but as you all know this is a team game, so you cannot begin the third leg until both teammates are there. You will also encounter some interesting options during the last leg but we are going to let you discover those on the trail. Questions?"

"What is the start time tomorrow?" asked Annie.

"Oh gosh, can't believe we forgot to mention that," Laurie said, "6AM start time."

"It didn't mention on the promotional materials that sleep deprivation was part of the challenge," Dillon cracked.

"There were a lot of things that weren't exactly clear on the promotional materials," Bailey deadpanned and the group laughed.

"Y'all complaining about it?" Laurie drawled with a raised eyebrow.

"No ma'am," Dillon replied with a smile, it seemed like he was looking forward to tomorrow.

'Interesting turnaround in that guy this evening,' Cal thought to himself. 'His teammate must really be a terrible influence, he's actually a pretty friendly person when Tommy's not around.'

"Alrighty then, if there are no further questions we'll leave you to it for the evening and see you bright and early. Cal, could you step outside with me for a moment please?" Laurie said.

Cal briefly panicked wondering what he had done wrong, but realized it was probably about Lindsey. He glanced with concern at everything to still be cleaned up but Bailey assured him they would take care of it for him. He thanked her and followed Laurie outside.

"Like the rest of us, Gloria could tell something was a bit amiss with you and Lindsey and thought she could help so she made you two this video to watch," Laurie said and handed him a tablet. "I think you two remind Gloria of her and her husband's first competition." Laurie had a wistful look on her face, as if she was remembering something amazing from the past.

"Thank you," Cal said, "um, if Lindsey isn't willing to compete with me tomorrow do I have any options?"

"Well I hope it doesn't come to that, but we do have that happen from time to time. We don't have a set procedure for that but I'll look at some options. If, after you talk to her, she's unwilling or unable to compete text me and Pierre and I will work on options for tomorrow and let you know, ok?" Laurie answered.

"Alright, thank you," Cal said, hoping it wouldn't come to that. "Do you want me to return the tablet after we watch the video?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, you can just leave it in your room and we'll pick it up after the camp is done tomorrow. We have dozens of those we use for various things around camp. Also, if it makes you feel any better, Gloria volunteered to be your partner tomorrow if you need one," Laurie said with a wink.

'Well that's nice at least,' Cal thought to himself as he trudged up the stairs. He was dreading this encounter with Lindsey after the afternoon they had had.

-----------------------------D2S24----------------------(L)

Lindsey had been miserable since she had returned to the lodge. She already had been feeling badly about how things had gone but hadn't been able to pass up taking one last nasty shot at Cal before leaving. She had showered and then heard everyone returning, but Cal hadn't stopped by and nobody else had checked in either. She wondered if everybody hated her now. Probably, she deserved it. It sounded like everybody was working together, probably united in disdain for her. She realized that she was letting her mind run wild and create unhealthy, improbable narratives.

When Cal entered the room a few hours later he found her sitting on the bed with her head in her hands. She was relieved someone had finally remembered her but she wasn't going to show that. She gave Cal an annoyed look. He winced, it was obvious to Lindsey he had been nervous about this encounter and she felt even worse. Why could she not let up?

"Uh, Gloria made us a video, I think we should watch it," he said tentatively.

"Who the hell is Gloria?" she snapped at him.

"The third judge from earlier, I thought you guys talked for a bit?" Cal answered.

"Oh, ok, fine let's watch it," Lindsey said. She was embarrassed to be called out for not even knowing the woman's name.

Cal sat next to her on the lower bunk so they could both see and pressed play on the tablet he was holding. There were six people seated on a large sectional in the video, with Gloria and another man in the center.

"Hello Cal and Lindsey, my name is Gloria D'Alessandro since we did not have the opportunity for proper introductions. This is my husband Grayson and these are our partners - Annemike and Jerrold - as well as Bhavin and Sierra. We're the group staying at the guest lodge this week and we've taken a particular interest in you two because we see a remarkable number of parallels between the week you two have had, and our first week here. We'd like to tell you our story in the hopes it benefits you tomorrow.

"The six of us first came here more than 15 years ago now. We were all young attorneys employed at a large corporate law firm in New York City. Each of us was between one and three years out of law school. This was very much a high-powered corporate environment; the unambitious need not apply. We were all up front about our desire to move up the corporate ladder and make high salaries - it was encouraged at the firm and a big part of how the partners motivated the younger lawyers to bust their tails.

"Anyways, we mostly knew each other casually but this was a firm with thousands of employees - we occupied four floors of a tower in Lower Manhattan - so none of us were friends or anything. Then we all got assigned to this big case one of the partners was taking on. Big, messy case, at its core it was a patent dispute but the outcome would have major anti-trust implications. Lot of money on the line for a very large client, and they hired our firm. So the partner held a kickoff meeting with us and within 10 minutes it was obvious we were not a very good team, too many people trying to show they were the smartest and most hard working. By that Friday we were all on a plane to Tennessee to spend a weekend here at the camp and work on our teamwork.

"The partner's real genius, and I don't use that word lightly - her name is on the side of the building now and she's probably a billionaire several times over these days - was that she didn't tell us the purpose of sending us down here. So being the young, hungry corporate sharks we were, we all thought we had to show off how we would do whatever it takes to win.

"We got off to a hot start, not quite like you guys, but still very good. We won the game on Friday, and the first one on Saturday morning. Not to brag, but there's a reason we were at one of the more prestigious law firms in NYC, there were a lot of big brains on that team - and in this room I suppose - we used strategy to win. But then things began to unravel a bit for us. We only finished second in the third game because we started to be more concerned with who was providing the winning solution than finding the best one. It got worse in the afternoon - people would not listen to others because they wanted to be the one that captained the team to victory. We only took two points from the afternoon games.

"We got a call that night, this was before video chat was commonly available, so we were all huddled around one of those old conference room phones downstairs and the partner calmly asked how we were doing. We verbally tripped over each other making excuses and fingerpointing. Then she revealed the true reason she had sent us here: to learn to work as a team. She told us that if we couldn't learn how to do that we could not work for her. Well that sure set us straight. The next day our teamwork was impeccable and we won the triathlon with a record time for a six person team. Record still stands today actually, I believe.

"We didn't actually win the competition that weekend, but that was kind of besides the point. The bond we forged and lessons about supporting each other never left. We went on to win that case a few years later and the partner said we were one of the finest teams of attorneys she ever had the pleasure to work with - high praise considering her background. She gave us all two weeks of leave to celebrate and massive bonuses. We decided to spend one of those weeks back here competing again because the experience had meant so much to us. We won that one and have won at least once a year for the last 15 years now.

"As you can see we also each found our own special someone in that original group. Beyond that, the absolute trust we developed gave us the confidence to strike out on our own a few years later and start our own firm with the six of us as the founding partners.

"If you watched this far, thanks for taking the time. We really hope you benefit from it and I hope to greet you at the winners' luncheon tomorrow afternoon. Good luck!"

The video ended. It had resonated with Lindsey, she had felt like such a screw up ever since she went off on Cal. It was nice to hear another story where things had seemingly gone completely wrong but worked out in the end. She wasn't quite sure how to express that though, she was really embarrassed about what she had done and didn't know how to address her bad behavior. Luckily Cal broke the ice with a joke.

"So we just use teamwork tomorrow and we'll win the competition, then go make huge bonuses at work, then get married, then start a hugely profitable business, did I get that right?" he asked with a sarcastic tone.

Lindsey laughed loudly and Cal's face lit up in a smile. She realized how mentally stressful this whole day, but especially this afternoon must have been for him too. She had really only been thinking about herself without a lot of concern for how he must have felt. She was such a bad person for being so selfish, her laughter quickly turned to sobs as the dam broke and the emotions poured out of her.

"I'm....sorry...Cal, so, so...sorry," she choked out between sobs. He put his arm around her shoulders. 'He's such a good guy,' Lindsey thought to herself. She'd been nothing but awful to him all afternoon and his first instinct is to comfort her when she breaks down. After a few minutes she had gotten the initial rush of feelings out and was able to regain some composure.

"I am truly sorry," she was word vomiting, but didn't care, "I don't deserve a teammate or person like you. My behavior all afternoon has been awful. I've always had a quick temper and have a really hard time admitting I'm wrong. I'm sorry it came out in the most toxic and cruel way this afternoon. I wish I had some excuse but your relatively minor poor choice wasn't even why we lost out in that stupid tractor challenge, it was me getting pissed at Annie. And then I redirected all that at you, ugh, I wish I could go back and undo so many things but I can't so all I can do is apologize."

Lindsey wasn't quite sure what she was hoping for. Forgiveness perhaps? However Cal looked bewildered more than anything, that was not something she had expected. How much had she messed things up now?

"If...you know...you aren't comfortable still being my teammate, I understand," she said haltingly.

That seemed to snap Cal out of his reverie.

"No, no...that's ok. It's just weird, like I feel really weird," he paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "I have basically just been wanting to reconcile with you all afternoon and go back to where we were before. Even aside from the physical stuff, I felt like we were forming this great friendship and I guess I was sort of grieving what was lost in a way. But now that we're here, and I guess reconciling it's almost like everything is catching up and I sort of feel like I should be mad at you. It's really confusing."

"I understand," Lindsey said, tears in her eyes again, "I deserve it for how I treated you. If there's anything I can do to begin to make it up just tell me."

"I don't think making this a tit for tat deal is healthy," Cal replied thoughtfully. "It seems like we agree we're not giving up on each other just yet, so I propose we put where we stand aside until the end of the competition. Let's get back to our original mantra of doing whatever it takes to win, and following Gloria's advice to trust each other. We'll give it our level best as a team tomorrow and we can walk away with our heads high regardless of the outcome. That seem fair?"

Relief washed over Lindsey and she just nodded, she felt too choked up for words. She embraced Cal, hoping the firmness of her hug conveyed all the emotions she couldn't express verbally. After a moment he hugged her back, she hoped this was a turning point for them as a team.

"Since we're being open with each other, I also want to be up front with you about the sort of 'original sin' that started our downward spiral," Cal said, his voice tinged with embarrassment.

"That's ok, man, I get it, we were kind of crushing on each other, erm, is it a crush if we had just given each other hand jobs?" Lindsey said, laughing awkwardly.

Cal smiled but she could tell something was weighing on him so she didn't say anything more.

"So that's partially true, but my feelings are a little more complex, and I feel like I need to share them with you in order for us to fully trust each other," Cal stated.

Lindsey was a bit surprised by the seriousness of his tone, clearly this was something that really weighed on Cal. She didn't say anything but nodded and gave him her full attention.

"I assume you recall Bailey mentioning yesterday that she thought Annie and Stefan have a WAM fetish?" Lindsey nodded to indicate she did. "And I'm guessing you have looked up what that is?" Lindsey nodded again, she had looked it up on her phone this evening. She knew it had to do with sexualizing getting dirty and messy.

"So, I don't have a fetish, that would mean that's the only thing I can get off to, but I am kind of into that stuff," Cal said quietly.

"So, did you just come here to build your spank bank?" Lindsey asked, taken aback.

"No, no, no. I was 100% honest when I told you my reasons for signing up yesterday, I wanted a new challenge. Let me explain the struggle I've always had. So I'm not sure when exactly I picked up my little kink, it's probably rooted in childhood fears about spilling on myself or something, but I kind of stumbled upon WAM as a kink during college. Ever since then I've struggled with a basic conundrum: how do I reconcile feeling arousal about something that for most people isn't a big deal or just an inconvenience.

"To give you an example, you know I'm into biking, off road in particular. Well you know what happens when there's a race in the rain or after it has rained a lot? Mud. And dirty cyclists. So let's say I see a female rider fall and get covered in mud. It's clearly not sexual for her, so if I feel arousal about it does that make me a pervert?

"I've primarily dealt with it by just avoiding situations like that to be honest. My bike friends think I'm a huge wuss about bad weather but it's just the opposite: I'm afraid I'll like it too much. And I would never do a Tough Mudder.

"So when I learned about this camp I thought the whole concept was really cool. I was a little worried about it but figured I could put my feelings in a box and just focus on the competition. And honestly that was going pretty well. Not going to sit here and lie and say I didn't think you looked sexy as hell covered in oil yesterday and mud this morning, but we were doing it to win. That, and how much I enjoyed being your teammate, was enough to help me keep focused on the goal.

"I think when things turned sexual for us this afternoon though, I just had a lot of guilt. Because I had said this wasn't about that for me, but then there's this beautiful girl who I already have a huge crush on and really like and wow. But then I start thinking about how you aren't into that stuff and felt bad. I think you mix that together with the cute outfit and I was feeling like if I pushed a strategy to get you dirty again I was just taking advantage and things were becoming about getting me off and not winning. It just put me in a bad place mentally and I made an error of judgement, but I hope understanding this backstory helps explain the why a little bit."

Lindsey thought over this new information. It certainly explained a lot. She felt a little bit of disgust but as she looked at Cal she could see the fear in his eyes and she realized that entrusting her with something so personal that put him in an emotionally vulnerable spot was what she needed to focus on. She tentatively put a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you for being so honest with me. I'm going to guess that's not something you've shared with a lot of people and telling me really helps me understand what happened. I also really appreciate that you trust me enough to share that. Goes a long way towards rebuilding our trust in each other," Lindsey said. "Like you just said, we have a ton to unpack in terms of what we are to each other, but let's put our focus on winning tomorrow and then we'll do that. Deal?"

"Yes, thank you Lindsey," Cal said with relief. He gave her leg an affectionate squeeze.

"Alright then, since I missed the briefing sulking, can you fill me in?" Lindsey asked.

Cal laid out the parameters Laurie had described earlier and gave his opinion that there wasn't a lot they could really do in terms of strategic preparation aside from getting rest and hydrating.

"Shit, I really do need to eat dinner, don't I?" Lindseay realized.

"Yeah, sorry you missed some pretty awesome tacos, Cara's recipe, but you definitely need to fuel up," Cal said.

"Ok, do you mind coming with me?" Lindsey asked. "I'm still really embarrassed about everything and don't really want to have to talk to anybody."

"Sure, happy to, teammate," Cal said, a little bit of his old levity creeping into his voice, "but honestly I don't think most of the others really caught on. Maybe Cara and Bailey a little bit, but you don't have that much to worry about I don't think."

Lindsey thanked him and they headed downstairs. Happily, everyone else seemed to have gone up to their rooms for the night or were outside. Lindsey was disappointed to discover there weren't any leftovers for her and made herself a quick sandwich. Still not really wanting to interact with anybody else she took her food and a big bottle of ice water and led Cal back to their room.

"Can you explain the bike part again to me while I eat? I'm not sure I'm following the power to weight thing you were talking about," Lindsey requested. She figured giving him the opportunity to talk about something he was clearly passionate about was also a good way to work them back towards more relaxed relations.

"Sure!" Cal answered enthusiastically, "Think of it this way, if you had one person who weighed 100 pounds and one person who weighed 200, you would expect the larger person to be able to bench press more in most instances, right?"

Lindsey nodded, this seemed obvious.

"So it's the same basic idea, you would expect someone who weighs more to be able to push harder on the pedals and go a lot faster. But the thing with cycling is it's not weight lifting, because that effort you put in moves your bike, which your body weight is sitting on. So yes, that 200 pound person can probably use more force on the pedals, but they also have to move a 200 pound human whereas the smaller person does not. So even if the smaller person puts in way less total effort they might actually be faster because they have to move way less mass. And then on top of that you have to mix in aerobic fitness, but there's no real way to account for that, that's what you bring to the table as a runner in particular. Did that make any sense?" Cal asked.

"It does," Lindsey replied, thinking it all over, "so for example Dillon probably weighs at least 70 pounds more than me, I have to put in less total effort because I am moving way less weight?"

"Yes, exactly, but you'll need to put in more effort than like Bailey or Annie who are relatively small, no offense," Cal said, blushing a little.

"Cal, you should know better than to comment on a lady's weight," Lindsey needled him, but her tone was not serious. "I think I'm following though. So you're certainly not a big meathead, but this is your thing...so basically you should have a big advantage."

Cal grinned and nodded, but then added a caveat.

"Unfortunately, while you're right I think there's a good chance I'm the fastest in that second leg, I do need to warn you I'm a really poor swimmer," he explained.

Lindsey's heart sank, if he couldn't swim what would they do?

"How bad are we talking here?" she asked trying to be understanding.

"Well I can swim if that's what you're worried about," Cal explained, "it's just that I've never been really comfortable in the water and I've never understood the technique to swim and breathe. Basically I can try to do a proper crawl stroke but it ends up more like an aggressive doggy paddle. I'll obviously do my best but I am likely to be way behind you."

"But that's ok, you can make it up during the second leg because you're a boss on the bike, right?" Lindsey asked.

"Well that's the plan, we'll see how it plays out. I think we both just give our best efforts and see where it shakes out. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm sure there will be some twists and turns at some point but I don't think there's anything we can plan around for now," Cal said.

Lindsey nodded and the pair chit chatted for a bit before agreeing it was time to settle down for the evening with another early morning on tap. The settled into their respective bunks. Lindsey was worried everything that had gone on might keep her awake, but the physical and mental exhaustion soon overtook her and she drifted off to sleep.


-------------------D3S1-----------------(C)

To his surprise, Cal slept great. He woke up just after 5 AM with the first streaks of dawn visible through the window. He had been worried that the emotional rollercoaster of yesterday would have kept him from sleeping soundly but the positive resolution before bed combined with the exhaustion of the day had resulted in a full night of deep sleep.

He got up feeling strangely energized. It was nervous excitement, he realized after a moment of self-reflection. That wasn't an emotion he felt much anymore. It made him feel good, he missed the feeling of being keyed up for something big. He knew in the end this was just an amateur competition but it felt good to have passion for something.

He did his morning routine and got dressed for the day - brief black compression shorts for underwear, olive green mountain bike shorts and a dark blue t-shirt made of microfiber. 'Probably not ideal for swimming,' he reflected on the somewhat baggy shorts, 'but at least the shirt's pretty tight and I know these shorts are comfortable for riding and should dry pretty fast so I won't chafe on the run.'

There was still over 40 minutes until the start so he decided to leave Lindsey alone to sleep a bit more and went downstairs to make coffee and maybe eat something. Bailey was the only one around and they chatted as they drank their coffee. Cal could tell she was wired too from how animated she was despite the hour and smiled, he was probably acting the same way. This was shaping up to be an awesome day.

Cal glanced at the clock and it read 5:33, getting close to the start time.

"Sorry to cut you off, I'm really enjoying this, but I think I better go wake up my teammate," Cal said.

"Back to teammate eh?" Bailey inquired, eyebrow raised, "well I'm glad to hear it, you guys are formidable competitors, we look forward to the challenge, good luck to you!"

They fist bumped and Cal headed upstairs. Lindsey was still fast asleep. He felt awkward invading her personal space despite everything that had gone on but didn't see an alternative. He tentatively shook her shoulder.

--------------D3S2-----------------------(L)

Lindsey jerked awake and was briefly disoriented about where she was and who the guy kneeling at her bedside was. Then things began to click into place as her mind activated for the day.

"Sorry to wake you," Cal whispered gently, "but the start time is coming up and..."

"Shit, what time is it?" Lindsey asked frantically, glancing around for a clock.

"It's ok, it's ok," Cal soothed her, "you have more than 20 minutes to get ready."

"Ok, thank you. Sorry, still not a morning person," she said.

"That's ok, I get it. I'm normally not either, just amped up for today. I brought you some coffee and a protein bar in case you needed either," Cal said.

"Awww, thanks Cal," she said. She couldn't help but smile, it was nice to be back on the same team thinking about how they could help each other. She spent a few minutes sipping coffee and getting down a few bites of the dense protein bar before heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready for the day.

She emerged from the bathroom and began pulling out her clothes for the day. She thought about going into the bathroom to change but thought it might help build trust if she just did it with Cal in the room; it wasn't like there was anything he hadn't seen yesterday anyway. She stripped off her pajamas and checked out her options.

The only clean underwear she had left were a plain white pair and a pair with pale green and pink pair with horizontal stripes. Pretty easy choice, she mused - white was not a great choice around this place it seemed. Which brought her to her next problem - the only clean bottoms were a pair of white leggings. Not much she could do about that, at least they were a quality athletic pair, not some cheap brand that would be totally transparent in the water. For her top she had a grey sports bra with a black elastic band around the bottom and a sky blue workout top to go over it.

"This outfit is the downside to wearing all my dark clothes yesterday morning and getting them filthy," she said to Cal mirthfully as she got dressed.

"Well you were committed to winning," Cal pointed out, she was glad that's where his focus was. "Would you like me to go grab the stuff we left out to dry?"

"Nah, it's fine, if it gets dirty it gets dirty, you did learn your lesson on that yesterday, right?" Lindsey asked.

"Haha, yes ma'am. Winning comes first," he said and made a sarcastic crossing his chest gesture.

"Good boy," she said in a playful tone. She did feel a little awkward about the white pants, completely soaked from the swim it probably would be pretty easy to see her underwear. She realized the orange shorts from yesterday hadn't gotten too dirty and she grabbed them from where she'd left them in the bathroom yesterday and put them on. "Ready to go," she declared.

"Great, hey, don't want to be weird, I definitely understand the shorts, but they might chafe a bit on the ride. I'm not exactly sure what the bikes will be like and I, uh, obviously am not familiar with exactly how this works for ladies, but I know for guys that's why we don't wear shorts that are too baggy, especially on road bikes if they happen to be that style." Cal said.

Lindsey could tell from his awkward expression and slight blush he felt really weird saying that, but he was trying to help. She thought about a retort about him just wanting to check her out but realized that would probably not be helpful for the fragile trust they were trying to build.

"Ok, thanks, I will definitely keep it in mind. I'm sure chafing would slow me down and then it would probably really suck for the run part," she said, "let's head for the start."

Cal nodded and they walked out to the starting line on the main field.

It was cool and there was still a bit of fog over the lake. Everybody was ready a few minutes before 6 AM and Laurie offered a quick greeting. Lindsey sized up the other teams. Team 1 was looking typically smug, once again in muscle shirts and shorts. She figured they were probably feeling confident since at least the first part of the round was mostly just a physical competition.

Team 3 was again looking surprisingly focused, apparently their newfound competitiveness hadn't dwindled overnight. Stefan was wearing another pair of dingy white rugby shorts which Lindsey could tell had been filthy on many occasions and a black sleeveless shirt. Annie was wearing a matching workout outfit, this one was even more revealing than yesterday and neon pink. The top was a yoga sports bra with thin straps and not much of a back. The shorts were very short and very tight. Lindsey's initial reaction was that Annie was just wanting more male attention but then she realized such tight clothes were probably advantageous for the swim leg when fluid dynamics could make a difference.

Team 4's outfits really drove this point home. Cara and Bailey were both dressed in dark blue one piece competitive swimming suits. Lindsey felt like an idiot for not thinking of that and packing a swimsuit. It would be a big advantage compared to wearing regular clothes and would dry quickly. She wondered how it would feel riding a bike though. She briefly considered discarding her shorts to be more aerodynamic in the water but she couldn't quite bring herself to do that.

"Good morning, glad to see you ALL here," Laurie called. 'Ugh, that was a barb at me,' Lindsey realized and felt renewed guilt again about her little meltdown the previous evening. "Remember, you must begin the third leg as a team, check in with Pierre once you leave the Mess Hall for instructions. I will be meeting you at the finish. Good luck to each team, I hope you all have enjoyed things so far, Pierre and I have certainly enjoyed having you at our camp and we're excited to see what you have in store for today. Any questions?"

There were none and Laurie gave them a signal to indicate they could begin. The eight competitors set out at a run along the shoreline of the lake, looking for the markers for where they could get into the water to start the swim leg. Tommy quickly took the lead with Dillon close behind him. Lindsey didn't worry too much about keeping up with them, knowing this was the start of a long morning and conserving energy was crucial. After what she thought was about 10 minutes of running they spotted the markers for the start of the swim. Lindsey shook her head in amusement, of course it was where a small depression in the shore had resulted in the formation of a large patch of mud. They were all going in the water momentarily anyway, it wouldn't matter much.

The competitors splashed through the mud and into the shallows all within about 100 yards of each other. As soon as the water was up to her hips Lindsey dove in head first and began to swim. She wasn't exactly sure how far across the lake it was but she guessed about a mile. She figured she could probably do that in less than 30 minutes, but it would definitely not be a sprint. She got herself into a nice rhythm and focused her mind on maintaining a steady tempo with her strokes and breaths. She passed by the other competitors within a few minutes and was out in the lead. It was certainly a bit of time, but she was approaching the shore near where they had started sooner than she had expected and suddenly realized she could touch the bottom again.

She stood up and jogged out of the shallow water. She took just a moment to look back at the competition to see how far she was ahead. She was surprised to find that Annie was actually in second and probably less than a minute behind her. The others were a bit further out. She couldn't tell exactly who was who but one guy was definitely a good distance behind the rest. She had a bad feeling that it was Cal.

There wasn't much she could do about that, so remembering their conversation about doing their best she took off across the field for the Mess Hall.

Pierre was seated outside as promised and waved as Lindsey ran past and into the building. It was a pretty remarkable change from yesterday when the dining area had been largely empty. Now eight modern-looking exercise bikes were set up on exercise mats in two rows of four, each labeled with a competitor's name. There were also several large industrial strength fans blowing. Lindsey ran to her bike and was about to get on when she remembered what Cal had mentioned earlier about potential chafing. Looking down at her soaked shorts she decided it wasn't worth the risk and dropped them, then got on her bike. She looked down and her underwear was pretty clearly visible through her wet leggings. At least she was in the back row, there really wouldn't be that much to see from the front anyway and her leggings were meant to dry quickly, the fans would help as well.

Now that she was moving Lindsey looked around to get a better sense of her surroundings. She realized the bikes were grouped by teams counterclockwise. So Team 1 would be in front of her, Cal would be next to her on one side, Team 3 on the other side and Team 4 in front of them. Of course it had to be Annie right next to her instead of Stefan. At the front of the room was a big screen TV. It had each competitors' name with stats next to the names, like a scoreboard. Of course, since Lindsey was in the lead hers was the only one showing anything so far. There was a little bar that showed her current effort level, what percentage of the ride she had done so far - it ticked from 1% to 2% as she watched - and an estimated finish time. She could compare that to the clock on the wall to figure out how much she had left to ride. 'This is all pretty cool and high tech, this place always has a surprise for us,' she thought to herself.

Cal had given her some tips on pacing herself since he was an experienced cyclist. The big thing he had emphasized is that an hour of riding would really add up if she started out too hard. He explained how even experienced riders often started off at a pace they thought they could hold all day only to begin to really struggle after the half hour mark, so Lindsey picked a pace that felt easy. Since she was in front she could see how she felt as she went and if others were catching her she could up her pace. There also was no point in pushing herself to beat others since she couldn't progress to the next stage without Cal.

Cal's other tip had been that if the bike allowed her to adjust resistance level to use a lower one. He'd explained that since she was a runner her aerobic fitness would be better than her leg strength so by doing more pedal strokes at a lower resistance she could stress that part of her body, which could recover quickly, but minimize leg fatigue for the run. Lindsey found the control on the bike to lower resistance and turned it down a few notches while she pedaled to keep her overall production steady. The little effort display on the TV was a big help.

Lindsey had just about settled into a rhythm when Annie burst through the door. Lindsey had seen that Annie wasn't too far behind her when she had emerged from the lake but she still couldn't help but be a little surprised that the diminutive woman was her closest competition. As Lindsey had done a few minutes earlier, Annie took a moment to orient herself then ran to her assigned bike, hopped on, and began to pedal. Her pace was furious from the start, surpassing Lindsey's output. Lindsey was immediately concerned and began to push harder.

It had barely been a minute when Annie's pace began to slacken. Lindsey adjusted her pace accordingly.

"Phew, this is way different from my spin class!" Annie exclaimed. "I thought I would be good at this since I spin 2 times a week."

"How long is your typical spin class?" Lindsey asked.

"Like 45 minutes with a warm up and a cool down, but we have breaks where we go slow and recover," Annie replied.

"Well we're probably going an hour or more, I think we need to focus on finding a steady tempo we can keep up for a while." Lindsey explained.

Annie looked at her with surprise, that was weird to Lindsey, what she just explained seemed like common sense. Then it dawned on her, Annie wasn't surprised by her advice, she was surprised Lindsey would say anything that might help her.

"Thanks..." Annie said, in a very tentative tone, "now that you put it like that it seems really obvious. Thank you for helping me."

Lindsey pondered the contrition in Annie's tone, it surprised her considering that they had largely been rivals thus far in the competition. Over the next few minutes the pair fell into what they both hoped was a reasonable rhythm they could maintain for the full 20 mile distance. Lindsey noticed that Annie's estimated finish time was steadily creeping closer despite her little output bar being a little higher. She realized this is what Cal had explained to her about power to weight ratio. Since Annie was smaller and lighter she had to exert less total effort to go the same speed as Lindsey. Lindsey wasn't quite sure if she should up her pace or just stay steady.

After a few minutes the other contestants began to arrive. Dillon was the first, but Cara, Bailey, and Tommy all arrived within about two minutes of each other. Annie and Lindsey were already past the 15% completion mark with a lead of several minutes. The new arrivals took differing approaches. Tommy seemed mainly concerned with the effort indicator and tried to keep himself above all the others. The big man was just mashing the pedals, it reminded Lindsey of someone doing reps on a leg machine. Dillon was a little bit more fluid, but his effort bar was still way higher than Lindsey thought she could sustain for more than a few minutes. The women's approach was a bit more measured; Lindsey thought they seemed more focused on the long game but their fitness was clear as they were both not losing any ground to her on the estimated finish time graphic.

The next contestant to arrive was Stefan, much to Lindsey's dismay. Cal had told her he would struggle but the situation was getting desperate. She considered her options and realized she had basically none other than to conserve her energy and hope Cal's cycling skills really were as good as advertised. She kept up her steady pace even as Annie and Tommy's estimated finish time dipped below hers.

A breathless Cal finally burst through the door a few minutes later. Lindsey looked at the clock and realized he was a full 20 minutes behind her. She'd known he would struggle at the swim by his own admission, but that was a big gap. She didn't see how he could make up so much time on the others. He ran to his bike and didn't even make eye contact with her. She imagined he felt ashamed and embarrassed by his performance so she quietly offered some words of encouragement: "We can still do this, Cal, this is your specialty, keep your head in the game."

With all 8 competitors now 'in the saddle' Lindsey could survey the scoreboard and get a better sense of how things might shake out. Cal was just underway with only 1% of his ride completed but his initial pace was impressive. His energy bar was on par with Dillon's. She worried if he could maintain that pace but thought back to their discussion about trust and decided she should not bother him. Tommy currently had the best estimated finishing time with her and Annie just a few minutes behind. Dillon, Cara, and Bailey were a few minutes further back. Stefan was a few minutes behind them with Cal in last. It looked like he would finish about 12 minutes after Team 1 and 10 minutes after Team 4. Lindsey felt frustrated but realized there was nothing she could do about it right now.

The ride continued and fatigue began to set in for the competitors. Everyone was overheated and dripping in sweat despite the fans. Lindseay realized that the fans had not been set up to dry them but to help keep them cool and the room from becoming a sauna. Tommy had clearly overestimated his own abilities and his estimated finish time was now dropping like a rock as he struggled to maintain his pace; his estimated time was several minutes behind Annie who was now in first with Lindsey close behind. Dillon, Cara, and Bailey had also slowed down from their initial pace but were not losing too much time. They were projecting to finish a few minutes behind Annie and Lindsey, but more importantly were still beating Cal by more than 10 minutes. At least Cal had passed Stefan, who was already struggling.

As Lindsey passed 85% complete the exhaustion was really setting in. She had intellectually understood what Cal had told her last night about the last part of the ride being tough, but experiencing it in person was a whole different thing; there was so much pain in her legs, and her butt hurt like hell. It was impossible to maintain the pace she had thought was so relaxed at the start and it was a struggle to just keep the pedals moving. Luckily most of the others seemed to be having the same issues and her initial restraint actually seemed to be paying off - she wasn't falling off a cliff in terms of pace despite the pain. Tommy was clearly exhausted and was now projected to finish more than 5 minutes after her and the gap was getting bigger. Dillon, Cara, and Bailey seemed like they would all end up between 6-8 minutes back of Lindsey. Annie had also dropped off but with her pacing she was still neck and neck with Lindsey for first. Of course, first didn't mean anything without your partner. Cal was still several minutes behind the Team 4/Dillon group but he was beginning to really cut into their lead. Looking over Lindsey could see the deep determination on his face; it was obvious he was trying to make up for his poor performance swimming. She just hoped he didn't exhaust himself for the running part.

Ultimately Annie and Lindsey finished at practically the same time. Lindsey couldn't help but sprint it out and did just defeat her smaller competitor. Cal had made tremendous inroads on the competition - he was now projected to finish less than 5 minutes behind Tommy after beginning his ride nearly 15 minutes behind. Cara seemed to have hit a wall and was also really struggling to finish and would barely beat Tommy. Bailey and Dillon had slowed down to match their teammates' pace, probably saving energy, Lindsey guessed. Stefan was still a few minutes behind Cal.

Glancing over she gave a nod of respect to Annie for the performance. To her surprise Annie jerked her head towards the back of the room as if she urgently needed to talk. Lindsey decided that couldn't hurt anything so she gingerly stepped off her bike on wobbly legs, offered a cheer to Cal, and followed Annie to a spot a few feet behind their rides.

"Good riding, Lindsey, and thanks again for the tip on pacing. You were definitely right, look how Cara and, especially, Tommy are falling to pieces," Annie said, breathing heavily.

"Thanks, same to you, unfortunately it looks like our men will be our downfall," Lindsey answered, gesturing towards the estimated finish times.

"I was thinking maybe we can figure out a way to help them out, level the playing field so to speak," Annie whispered. "We both just experienced how tough that last 10% of the ride is, right? What if there was a distraction, I bet that would make it almost impossible to keep pushing hard."

"Um, what do you have in mind?" Lindsey asked. She really didn't see what they were going to do here to distract. She didn't think dancing around and yelling would matter and it felt unsporting regardless.

"Well," Annie said, a bit of doubt creeping into her voice, "we are next to the kitchen and I think by now you are aware of my unique, ahem, proclivities. We're two attractive ladies, we could probably cook something up," she laughed.

Lindsey thought that over. It felt quite weird to be allying with Annie, who she generally despised and who had been her rival thus far. But on the other hand it did make some sense. Cal was clearly going to beat Stefan, but they would be losing time to the other two teams, so anything they could do to slow them down made sense. She made up her mind.

"Ok, what do you want me to do? I'm not comfortable with anything sexual, but for the sake of the game I'll pretend with you, I just don't want any part of your weirdness," she declared.

Annie looked thoughtful for a moment, "Ok, I can work with that," she said. "Go to the front the room in front of everybody and wait. Just act like yourself and we'll see how this plays out."

Lindsey gave her a rueful look but complied and followed the small dark haired woman to the front of the room. Annie disappeared into the kitchen but Lindsey kept her focus on the scoreboard, pointedly ignoring her co-conspirator. After a couple minutes she heard some movement behind her but intentionally ignored it. She made deliberate eye contact with Cal, he seemed like he was about to jump off his bike and intervene. She kept her gaze steady, hoping her eyes conveyed the message to trust her and not intervene. He seemed to get the message and settled back into his relentless cadence.

Lindsey knew something was coming, but she still couldn't help but shriek when a cool, squishy substance was pushed into her ass. "What the fuck?" she exclaimed, whirling to face Annie who had a shit eating grin on her face and paper plate with traces of whipped cream on it.

"Well I know how much you value your modesty, Lindsey, so I figured I should help you out. Your panties were totally visible," Annie explained in an absurd, saccharine voice. Lindsey surmised that the cool, squishy wetness she felt on her butt was the result of a whip cream pie.

Annie had picked up a large cup of something and was sipping from it while she laughed at Lindsey's discomfort. Without warning she tossed the contents towards Lindsey. Lindsey instinctively turned and some of the liquid hit the side of her neck but the majority hit her chest. She looked down and the substance, which she realized was a red sports drink, had soaked her cleavage and stained her light blue top.

Before Lindsey could register her disgust Annie explained that she was 'just trying to help her friend rehydrate after an exhausting ride.'

Lindsey's first inclination was to scream at Annie and/or attack her, but as she took in the scene she began to understand the idea of the distraction. Annie had arrayed a variety of things on a trolley she must have found in the kitchen and positioned it next to them. Lindsey saw a large cup of bright blue sports drink and figured that would be a good riposte.

She grabbed it and hurled it towards Annie's chest and face aggressively. To her surprise Annie didn't try to dodge it but just closed her eyes and just thrust her chest forward. Her pink colored sports bra was stained by the blue liquid but she didn't seem concerned.

"I just thought I should try to reciprocate and help you rehydrate, friend," Lindsey said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Thank you so much!" Annie squealed. Lindsey was completely taken aback by Annie's reaction, it was the opposite of what she had expected. Then she realized...this was the other part of what Annie meant by a distraction. Annie gave her a look that said 'the ball is in your court' so Lindsey grabbed another cream pie from the trolley and pushed it into the front of Annie's shorts, forcefully but not with the same aggression as her first shot.

"Since I know you also value modesty so much, I thought I should return the favor and help you out, friend," Lindsey said in a mocking, falsetto voice. It could not have been more obvious her statement was not genuine.

"Oh my goodness, are my tight little shorts not doing a good job of covering me up?" Annie asked, her falsetto tone matched Lindsey's. "You better do my butt too, I don't want those naughty boys to see anything they shouldn't." She punctuated her statement with an exaggerated wink towards the guy's side of the row, then turned around and thrust her rear towards the riders, presenting a target. The workout shorts she was wearing really weren't that revealing, but if you stared at them, as Annie was making it very easy to do, you could just make out the shape of her bottom.

Lindsey took a glance at the scoreboard, it seemed like this was working. The already exhausted Tommy was struggling even more. To Lindsey's surprise Bailey also seemed to have fallen off the pace a bit, although maybe she was just saving her energy since she was ahead of her teammate, Cara. Returning her focus to their little game she considered the options left on the trolley. She quickly settled on a big bowl of tomato sauce, her nemesis from yesterday. Like the slop she had served yesterday this was just a thin red paste, liquidy without much texture. Not great for eating, but perfect for this task Lindsey had.

She picked up the bowl, positioned the rim just above the waistline of Annie's shorts and began to pour. Annie 'helped' by pulling out the waistline of her shorts out, so most of the sauce actually went into them. Once the bowl was empty she let them snap back into place and grabbed the sides, pulling the shorts forward. Lindsey wondered how having the sauce pressed into her rear must feel. The entire back of the shorts turned bright red and some of the liquid poured down the back of Annie's legs.

"Wow, thanks Lindsey!" Annie continued in the silly tone they had adopted, "I'm so glad to have a good friend like you looking out for me, I never knew I was so exposed."

Lindsey realized it was probably her turn to be the 'victim'. Annie gave a pointed look at her then nodded to the scoreboard to underscore their approach was working. Cal's projected finish time was now just behind Cara and he was ahead of Tommy. Lindsey had gotten Annie three times - front, back and chest - so the logical place was the one of those she hadn't been hit, the front of her pants. She hadn't had much expectation that her white leggings would survive the day and the once pristine white fabric was already stained with flecks of mud and spots of red sports drink from her earlier dousing. 'For the good of the team' she thought to herself.

Lindsey sighed, "well I suppose a good friend would also help ensure my modesty," she said and beckoned to her crotch. Annie grinned and grabbed a large can of something off the table.

"Of course, I have just the thing," she exclaimed and sauntered over to Lindsey. She upended the can at Lindsey's waist and out seeped thick, dark brown chocolate sauce. It was thick and flowed out slowly, coating the bottom of Lindsey's top and covering the crotch of her pants.

"Pull out your waistband and get some inside, trust me, you won't regret it," Annie whispered so that nobody would hear.

'Eh, I am curious, what's the harm?' Lindsey thought to herself, and followed Annie's direction to pull her waistband out and the second half of the can went into the front of her pants. She released the waistband and the elastic material pressed the sauce into the thin material of her panties. It felt interesting - very sloppy, weirdly pleasant as it pressed into some sensitive areas. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about it.

"Well I guess now that we're properly covered, it would be ok if we had a little fun, right?" Annie said, then moved so that she was between the riders and Lindsey. She put her hand between Lindsey's legs and gently pushed them apart. Befuddled, Lindsey complied and stood with her legs should width apart.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a harsh whisper.

"Pleasuring you, you do know how to fake an orgasm, right?" Annie asked, also in a whisper.

"How the fuck does this make any sense? We go from 'protecting each other's modesty' to getting ourselves off, that doesn't make any sense." Lindsey pointed out, again in a whisper.

"Who cares if it makes sense? The goal is to create a distraction. Which is working damn well by the way, Cal and Stef are going twice as fast as the other teams right now. You make this good and you may be the first out of here." Annie explained.

With a shake of her head Lindsey gave in and Annie began to thrust her hand between her legs. With a start Lindsey realized that despite her expectations Annie was actually respecting her boundaries; although it would be hard to tell to the riders who were several feet behind Annie, the woman was not actually touching her, just moving her hand an inch below her sex, simulating that she was. That was thoughtful, she mused, who knew Annie actually cared about consent? A small part of her also kind of wished her partner in crime would go for the real thing, she was very curious to explore how it would feel to have the chocolate sauce pressed into her sensitive bits.

Lindsey realized she needed to put on an act to make this all plausibly believable and continue their little distraction. She began mewing as if she was being pleasured and gradually escalated her cries of ecstasy. She surreptitiously looked over at Tommy to gauge his reaction. The man obviously did not realize this was all a show. He was struggling to even turn the pedals between his exhaustion and obvious arousal. That must be a hell of a combination to deal with, Lindsey thought, and redoubled her efforts, trying to simulate her approaching orgasm.

Glancing over at Bailey, it was hard to understand what was going on with the small blonde. She seemed to be physically uncomfortable but also trying to hold back laughter. Lindsey shifted her gaze to Cara, who was a bit easier to read: she was barely containing her laughter. Lindsey couldn't keep up this act any longer; this whole event had put her in some absurd situations but this took the cake. Here she was, having just completed a super intense swim and bike workout, standing in front of a room of people, covered in messy substances, pretending to have an orgasm as a woman she barely knew and mostly hated, simulated stimulating her. It was too much to take and she burst out into laughter.

With the patina of seriousness gone Cara, Lindsey, and Bailey all dissolved into fits of hysterical laughter. Annie was baffled for a moment but soon joined them once she realized the jig was up. Tommy looked completely confused, Dillon just shook his head. Lindsey looked at Cal, wondering what he thought, but he appeared to not have paid any attention and his expression was fully serious which jolted her back to the larger game. 'One minute' he mouthed to her silently, jerking his head towards the board. Lindsey whirled around and was excited to see he really was just a minute from finishing and would beat the others!.

Turning to Annie, Lindsey whispered, "Well this isn't exactly how we mapped it out but a successful distraction it was, thank you for working with me."

"No problem, and thank you for going outside your comfort zone on it, sorry about your cute leggings," Annie answered with a small frown. "May I make one little request before you head out?"

"Yes, of course, and you won't be too long, Stefan made up ground too," Lindsey said.

"One for the road?" Annie inquired tentatively, nodding towards the trolley. Lindsey couldn't help but laugh at Annie's ridiculousness. Without answering she stepped over and looked for the messiest substance left. Her choice was obvious: a big pumpkin pie. She picked it up and stepped towards Annie. The smaller woman pulled open the waistband at the front of her shorts and cast her eyes downward, making her preference obvious. Lindsey carefully lowered the pie into Annie's shorts and, feeling bold, pressed the tin into Annie's crotch. The smaller woman put her hands on Lindsey's pushing the pie deeper into her and a tremor went through her body. 'Did she just cum from that?' Lindsey wondered. There was no time to contemplate things further. Cal was off the bike and moving towards the exit. With a last smile towards her impromptu accomplice, Lindsey took off after her teammate and followed him out the door. 'Holy cow, after all that we're back in first place,' she thought to herself. What a morning it had been already been, and it wasn't even 0800.


----------------D3S3---------------(C)

Cal held the door for Lindsey, which gave him a good chance to get a close up of her condition. Her blue tank top was stained red from the sports drink and her once white leggings were dark brown across the front from the chocolate. Some of that had also seeped down her thighs. He didn't think he'd ever seen someone so beautiful.

He had not been quite sure of what to make of whatever Annie and Lindsey had been up to but he'd known from the look Lindsey gave him that he shouldn't interfere. He'd learned his lesson from yesterday on that one. He figured he could get the full story later, but right now they had work to do. His legs were exhausted after his intense ride. He'd pushed harder than he probably should have but he was ashamed how far behind the swim leg had put him. He knew he was bad, but that performance had been atrocious. They approached the nearby table where Pierre was sitting.

"Well well, Team 2, I shouldn't be surprised I suppose, but I'm still amazed that you got here last and still leave with the lead," the man said with grin. "We told you there would be some twists in the third leg and here's the first. From here on out one partner must be blindfolded at all times." He handed over a blindfold. It reminded Cal of the kind people wore to sleep on planes.

"Lest you be tempted to peek, we have game cameras along the trail and know what times are typically possible. If we have any suspicions we can check the film, so be good sports and don't try, please," he explained. "Good luck, you'll meet Laurie at the finish line.

"I'll wear it first," Lindsey volunteered before Cal could even offer, "you more than have my trust after that last episode, let's go!" She grabbed the mask and affixed it over her eyes. Cal grabbed her hand and headed down the trail they knew well by now.

The first part of the trail was where they had done the first game yesterday with the HVT. Cal explained this to Lindsey so she would know they could move pretty quickly but had to be careful at the bridges. They experimented with a couple different approaches to moving with one person blind and settled on a light jog being about the fastest they could safely move. They agreed that a quick but steady pace was much better than trying to run and risking falls and potential injuries. They found that the best way for Cal to guide Lindsey was to hold her arm just above the elbow. This way it was easy to guide her both left and right but also to push forward to let her know they could move a bit faster or pull back to let her know they needed to hold up for an obstacle. Cal really enjoyed working together with Lindsey this way; being literally connected as well as her trusting him to guide felt very intimate in a positive, team-oriented way.

After a few minutes they passed what had been the rifle range where they did the tractor challenge yesterday and entered the woods again. This was a new part of the trail and Cal slowed their pace a little. Just a few hundred yards into the woods the trail forked into three branches and there was a sign. Cal read it to Lindsey: "There are three paths for this leg that you can follow to the finish. You may switch paths at any point but you must come back to this point to begin a different path.
Option 1: 17 km run, limited obstacles
Option 2: 5 km run, some obstacles
Option 3: 2 km run, many obstacles"

"What's your gut reaction?" Lindsey asked Cal.

Cal did some quick mental math then answered, "I think the middle path is the best option. The one that's pure running is going to be a minimum of 30 minutes longer with the speed we can run with one of us blindfolded. Very likely longer. I feel like we can overcome the obstacles faster than that."

"I think you are probably right," Lindsey said, "path two was my first thought also. One is short but you know the obstacles they would throw could get kind of crazy. Let's check ourselves here to be careful though, we're not repeating our mistake from yesterday of taking the safe path right?"

"Nah, I think the safe path is to do do the run since it's obvious what that entails. Middle path will still allow us to take advantage of running fitness but if we can work together to overcome the obstacles I think we'll be ok," Cal said.

"Cool, then point me in that direction. Literally," Lindsey joked. Cal grabbed her arm and they set out down the path.

After a few more minutes of running they arrived at the first obstacle. Cal looked it over and began explaining it.
"Alright, it's a climbing wall. I don't have much experience with these but it looks pretty simple. The wall blocks the whole trail and there's a sign that says there's game cameras around the edges that will be activated if we try to circumvent so we can't cheat. The part we can actually climb is narrow so we can't climb together. It's probably eight feet high so if you fall it shouldn't be a big deal and there's a thin pad at the bottom. I think the smart thing to do here is for you to go first and I'll talk you through the holds then I can quickly follow."

"Makes sense," Lindsey agreed, "try to boost me a few feet so we can skip the first part of the wall."

Cal guided Lindsey so that she was in front of the climbing wall. Cal considered how to boost Lindsey the highest. His plan had been to just boost her up by her hips but he wouldn't be able to hold her like that for long and with her blinded he didn't think she could gain purchase on the holds in time. A sideways boost on his shoulder like yesterday would give her more time but he wouldn't be able to see. He realized the best option was to have her directly on his shoulders with his head between her legs. He gently moved her legs so they were bit more than shoulder width apart then squatted in front of her and backed up until his upper back touched her thighs.

"Can you climb on?" he asked.

Without a word Lindsey gingerly began to climb on. He guided her as best he could despite facing the wall. There we a couple missteps, but Lindsey soon had her legs around his shoulders. Now came the fun part, on legs he had just abused on his storming bicycle ride he now had to squat Lindsey's body weight. He gritted his teeth and pushed, reaching his standing height with a tremendous effort and a grunt of pain. Lindsey affectionately ruffled his hair, Cal was glad she appreciated his effort.

Now at standing height Cal moved right up next to the wall so Lindsey could feel for handholds. It took her a few moments, but she soon had two that seemed solid. Cal felt a sticky sensation on the back of his head and neck and realized that was probably residual chocolate sauce from Lindsey's earlier 'distraction'. Confirming that she had good grips on the handholds Cal guided Lindsey's right leg to a hold for her foot, checked she had good grip, then repeated the procedure with left. With both hands and feet solidly gripping the wall he slid out from under Lindsey and took a few steps back. With the new perspective he was able to serve as her eyes and 'talk' her up the wall.

"Ok, first move is with your right hand, hold is about 9 inches up and 3 to the left," he called. Lindsey's right hand moved, felt around and got a grip.

"Got it, what's next?" she called back once she was secure.

Progress was predictably slow, but steady. Lindsey was soon atop the wall.

"What's on the other side?" Cal asked, worried it was a straight drop or something.

"There's some kind of ramp, I think I can just creep down it," Lindsey said and brought both legs over the wall. She disappeared and a few seconds later Cal heard a surprised squeal.

"Are you ok?" he shouted in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lindsey replied, a bit of amusement in her tone, "I just slipped and it caught me off guard, but I just rolled down. All good though, soft landing. Guessing more mud based on the consistency. Par for the course, right?"

"Ha, yep, sounds about right," Cal agreed wryly, "I'm coming up now, be there in a minute. Only a minute was a slight exaggeration, but Cal made quick work of the wall despite his fatigue; it really was a very beginner level obstacle - if you could see.

Topping the wall he looked down and immediately understood what happened to Lindsey. There was a narrow path to walk down the slope to the ground but the sides were steeper and wet with mud, he could see where she'd slid down. He ran down the dry path and helped Lindsey up from where she had come to rest. The back of Lindsey's clothes had been mostly clean but were now covered in thick, dark mud Cal noted, but didn't comment. They soon got back into their running pace with Cal guiding by the arm.

Cal was surprised that they came to another sign in less than a minute and pulled on Lindsey's arm to hold up.

"Oh, it's a blindfold switch station, it says we can switch who has to wear the blindfold here. Are you ready for a break?" Cal asked.

"Yeah, would that be ok?" Lindsey asked. "You did a fantastic job as guide but being blindfolded this whole time is starting to get a little disorienting."

"Sure, absolutely, I'll take a turn at it." Cal said. He took the blindfold from Lindsey and put it over his own eyes.

----------------------D3S4-----------------(L)

Lindsey blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. The temperature was rising rapidly; it was going to be a hot day. She took Cal's arm and they began working on establishing their running cadence. They got up to speed faster than Lindsey had expected - Cal having done this while the 'guide' part of the pairing gave him a better understanding of how to pay attention to subtle cues from his partner.

As they jogged, Lindsey took a moment to reflect on things so far today. It was hard to be anything but pleased about the outcome so far. Despite the challenges of Cal's swim leg, they still ended up in first. That was down to a team effort, she realized, reflecting on Cal's dogged determination on the bike and her effective distraction to slow the other teams. The good partnership seemed to be continuing during this run/obstacle leg - they had quickly found their rhythm as running partners with one blind and had successfully navigated the first obstacle quickly using good teamwork.

After what Lindsey thought was about 10 minutes of running the pair approached the second obstacle. Lindsey took a few moments to survey it and read the directions, then began explaining it to Cal.

"We have to cross a pit by hopping from spot to spot, like stepping stones. Each spot is a different size. They aren't flat, they are rounded, sort of like a baseball base. The material looks similar to that too, so I'm guessing they are somewhat soft. The pit is filled with more of that damn beet juice and if we fall in we get a 5 minute penalty for each person that gets dirty. I assume it stains like crazy so that's how they judge it."

"Do the bases or stones or whatever we want to call them move around at all? Also, I'm assuming you think we can get across in less than 10 minutes so it doesn't make sense to take the penalty, right?" Cal asked.

"Good question, we might be better off just going for a swim if the bases aren't steady. Although it wouldn't be a swim, it says it's only 4 feet deep. I think I can test on the first base, it's within easy reach, let me position you to steady me if I need it," Lindsey said, then guided Cal so that he was standing near the edge of the pit.

She steadied herself by holding on to his shoulder with one hand, and with her opposite leg tentatively reached out for the base. She probed gently with her foot, using Cal to steady herself and was satisfied after a few pokes that it was solid. She transferred her weight and positioned herself with one foot on the shore and the other on the base.

"It seems to be on solid ground, must be a piling or something underneath," she told Cal. "This first step is easy, I'm just going to guide you across to the base. Take a slightly longer than normal stride with your right leg. I'll push or pull your shoulder if you're too far or too short."

Following her directions Cal took a tentative step and she guided him to the first base, then again used his shoulder to steady herself as she pushed off from the edge of the pit and got her second foot planted on it.

"The second base we have to get to is a similar distance, but it's at a diagonal from the base we're on," she explained. "It's also smaller, rectangle shaped instead of a square, so less margin for error on your stride. I'm going to straddle the gap to guide you across, then you can help pull me on."

Once again, she positioned Cal for his step then reached out with her left leg, steadying herself on his shoulder. Once she had the left foot planted on their destination she told him to take his step. She had to pull him back slightly to avoid stepping too far and potentially losing his balance but he was able to make a solid landing on the base with one foot, then bring over his other. He gave Lindsey a small tug on the arm at her direction to help her get her second leg over to the base. Two down, two to go.

Lindsey realized she'd made a small error. The next base was off to their right but Cal was between her and the stepping off point. This rectangular base was so narrow she had to get past him but it was only about a foot wide. She explained the issue to Cal and carefully slipped past him, each held the other by their hips to maintain balance. Her boobs rubbed across his chest because of the narrow confines. 'Didn't hate that one little bit,' she thought to herself.

The next base was not going to be so straightforward, it was too far for Lindsey to keep one foot on each and guide Cal, so they would have to take long strides or short jumps across. Easy work for Lindsey, not so much for Cal, who could not see. Lindsey decided she should go across first and explained the plan to Cal. She helped position him so he was oriented towards where he needed to go, then hopped across to the next base.

"Alright you're up," she called to Cal. "Remember, one small step to the edge of the bag then a long stride with a little hop to get to me. I'll catch you as you land and help you balance."

With a deep breath, Cal took the small first step and then propelled himself towards Lindsey's voice and the next base. He had his right arm outstretched so she could guide him and she grabbed it and pulled it towards her to try to make sure he had enough momentum.

Lindsey quickly realized her mistake: Cal had more than enough momentum, her extra tug was causing him to go too far. For a brief moment she was terrified he would bowl her over and they would both fall into the pit. Thinking fast she dropped to the ground, grabbing a handful of his shirt to supplement the grip she already had on his arm with her other hand and pulled him down, trying to prevent him from plunging into the reddish-purple juice.

Lindsey's plan worked, but that also meant she had pulled her teammate down directly on top of her. Blind already, and completely surprised Cal flailed and barely broke his fall. He was not a particularly large man, but having another person practically dropped on your torso still hurts. Lindsey had the breath completely knocked out of her. Cal, completely disoriented about what had just happened, continued to flail his arms about for a few seconds until he seemed to realized he was laying atop his teammate and got up on his hands and knees.

"Oh my gosh, what happened? Are you ok?" He asked breathlessly.

"I...I'm....ok," Lindsey gasped. She felt like a boulder had just been dropped on her sternum, breathing hurt. "You...you...went too far, I...pulled too hard...didn't want us to...go in the...pit," she finished haltingly.

To her surprise, Cal's face broke into a grin; "Damn, I knew you were committed to winning, but that must have hurt like hell and you didn't even hesitate. You sure as hell have my respect, Linds," he said.

'I might've just let you take the plunge if I had known it would hurt that much,' Lindsey thought, but instead she reiterated their team motto: "Whatever it takes, right man?"

"Fair enough," Cal said, "let me know when you're ready to move."

"I'm good," Lindsey replied, although getting up was painful. She was going to be sore tomorrow. Rising to one knee, she examined the task to get to the last base. It looked almost identical to the previous hop in terms of distance, but the last base was half the size of the one they were on right now. It would require much greater precision, which was obviously tough for Cal. She thought through their options.

"Next base is the same distance, but much smaller. I think your move to this one was basically spot on if I hadn't pulled you, so if you can replicate that we should be ok. You just don't have much room to miss. I'll be right behind you and can help you balance, sound good? Lindsey asked.

Cal nodded and she positioned him for his jump. He executed well and strode across to the small final base. Lindsey could tell he was teetering a little, not quite fully balanced and not sure much room he had on the small bag. She hopped across and embraced him in a bear hug to help him settle. She held on for a just moment longer than necessary; it felt nice.

"Last jump!" Lindsey exclaimed. "This one is easy in that you don't have to be precise but it's hard because it's the longest jump so far and we can only take a small stride off this little base."

They did a couple dry runs, with Cal taking the small step before leaping but not actually going. Then, with a deep breath, Cal launched himself for all he was worth across the chasm. Unfortunately his plant foot slipped a little at the critical moment and he didn't get the powerful launch he needed. His jump was still good, and he reached out his legs like a long jumper, but too much of his bodyweight was too far back. He twirled his arms trying to gain balance without falling over backwards.

Lindsey barely thought, she just reacted, she launched herself through the air and flew into Cal, her shoulder hitting between his shoulder blades and pushing him forwards. That kept Cal from falling backwards into the pit, but there was no way he could keep his balance and with his arms out to the sides he barely broke his fall, landing right on his chest. Lindsey, of course, had no real way to keep her balance and essentially tackled him like an American Football player. She rolled off him quickly, in pain herself as she'd landed chest first on his back, but more concerned for him as she'd basically piledriven him into the ground.

"Oh my gosh...are you ok?" she asked, out of breath.

"Ughhh, yeah, but fucking ow," he moaned.

"I'm really sorry, I thought you were about to fall in," Lindsey said.

"No...ugh...that's ok...you...did the right thing, I was losing my balance," Cal said. "Let's get moving, a bit slowly here for a minute though."

Lindsey helped him up and they began to move. Rather than go back to their jogging set up they just put their tired arms around each other's shoulders and supported each other as Lindsey guided them. It took a bit longer, but they were soon as the next blindfold exchange station.

"I think after that you deserve a break," Lindsey suggested.

"You did completely the right thing, Linds, but yeah I'll accept that offer," Cal said and they exchanged the blindfold once again.

-----------------------D3S5-------------------(C)

After the brief interlude to get their breath back, the pair began to get back up to their normal jogging pace. They were still sore but not in quite so much pain. It took a little longer than between previous obstacles but they arrived at the third one before too much time passed.

"I have some good news and some bad news," Cal said, "which do you want first?"

"Uh, bad I guess?" Lindsey said unsurely.

"Bad news is I'm pretty sure this is mainly a psychological challenge. Good news is it's not too physically demanding, aside from like the risk of death," Cal explained.

"...That's not exactly encouraging for someone doing it blind, buddy," Lindsey said drily.

"Yeah, probably not great phrasing, sorry about that," Cal replied and began to explain the obstacle: "It's a concrete pipe in sort of a shallow 'v' shape. It's pretty narrow, only a little more than shoulder width so it's going to be tough to push ourselves through it. It angles narrowly downward for about 20 feet to a low point and then goes up for about the same distance. What makes this really fun is that it looks like maybe 10-12 feet down there's water filling the pipe."

"So we have shimmy downwards in this narrow pipe for maybe 10 feet to the the water, then we have to go another 10 feet holding our breath before we can start to try to crawl out, and then we have to go another 10ish feet before we can take a breath?" Lindsey confirmed the task. Her tone was not enthusiastic.

"You got it," Cal answered, "in theory it shouldn't be that hard, but going down into a dark hole underwater, yeah that's the psychological challenge. Hey, at least being blindfolded won't matter much, right?"

"Thanks, Positive Patty," Lindsey said sarcastically. "So what's the play here, you first then me?"

"Yeah, I think so," Cal said. "There might be something weird on the opposite side, I guess. Honestly, I don't think it makes a huge difference, we're both going to be effectively blind in there, especially once we're under water."


"Is there any chance we could go through together?" Lindsey asked. "Like I could be on your back or something?"

Cal took a moment to ponder that. He didn't hate the idea of being in such close proximity to Lindsey. However, he was pretty sure if they could squeeze into the tunnel together they would have a really hard time moving.

"I don't think that's the best idea. It's already really limiting how much you can move to push forward with how narrow it is," he explained.

Lindsey nodded her acceptance and Cal positioned her so that she was touching the entrance, then climbed into the pipe. It was about as tight as he had anticipated. There was about a foot of on either side of his shoulders so the best he could was crawl on his elbows. That didn't feel good on the hard concrete surface. He tried rolling over onto his back. That allowed him to use his hands on the ceiling and his shirt protected him from getting scraped up as he pushed himself along. After a few moments he had moved far enough his feet were in the pipe and he could use them to push himself forward. He bent his knees, planted his feet and lunged downward; it was sort of a bizarre upside down squat, but it worked.

"Hey!" he shouted, "Recommend you roll over to lay on your back once you get in. You can get a bit more extension with your arms on the ceiling and use your feet to push yourself."

"Ok, sounds good," Lindsey acknowledged. "I'm coming in."

Cal continued to push himself down the pipe, he sensed he was getting close to the water and rolled over onto his stomach to check things out. The water was just as inky black as would be expected and smelled a bit fetid. There was a small sign on the roof of the pipe. It said 'Pull rope in case of emergency to open drain at bottom of pipe. Using drain will result in significant time penalty.'

"Hey," he called to Lindsey, "there is a rope that starts down here and I'm guessing runs along the roof of the pipe. We can pull it if we get in trouble to drain the pipe."

"Ah, that makes sense," Lindsey answered, "Laurie and Pierre wouldn't want there to be any serious risk to us. Guessing you're close to the water now?"

"Yep," Cal said, "I'm going in on the count of 10, follow me as close as you can. As soon as I surface on the other side I'll stop and pull like hell once I feel you grab my ankle to help you, sound good?"

"Scary as shit, but I wouldn't do it with anyone else, let's go. You got this buddy," Lindsey cheered.

Cal appreciated her words. She knew that he wasn't terribly comfortable in water and was trying to pump him up. It was legitimately scary; he was going down into a dark hole filled with water, even if he did know there was a way out on the other side. He tried to lower his heart rate but it was tough with the fear he felt. With a deep breath, he pushed off hard with his feet and thrust himself below the surface.

Cal's first push got him about navel deep. He lightly blew air out his nostrils to try to keep water from going up and pushed hard again. The second thrust got him almost knee deep. He had a sudden epiphany at that point: being in the water made things so much easier. Instead of pushing himself along a hard surface underwater there was no resistance because he was partially floating! It reminded him of movies with scenes in outer space where the characters pushed themselves along a corridor unencumbered by gravity. He rolled over and pulled himself quickly downwards to the kink of the pipe.

The bottom of the pipe did get a bit tight - there was some sort of silt or scum buildup at the bottom and he just scraped under the angle of the pipe, getting a chest full of what felt like pond scum in the process. From there it was easy though, he was floating and now buoyancy was helping too as he was moving upwards. He happily broke the surface of the water and took a deep breath.

Now he had to think about Lindsey. He had told her he would stop at this point and try to help pull her out once she grabbed his ankle, but after learning how much easier it was to move underwater he didn't think that was the best plan. Better to move and let Lindsey float through as he had. He hoped she would understand his change of plans and rolled back onto his back and began pushing himself upwards. He was nearly completely out of the water, just his knees and below under the surface when he felt a hand grab him. He pushed hard, hoping to help Lindsey. He heard her take a deep breath, which meant she had made it!

"Good job switching it up," Lindsey called, "it was so much easier in the water to move, didn't need to waiting for you push on dry land while I was holding my breath."

"Nice, glad you caught on," Cal called in response, "let's get out of here."

The pair pushed themselves up the tunnel and soon Cal could grasp the edge of the pipe which made pulling himself out much faster. Once back on solid ground he reached in and helped pull Lindsey the last few feet until she too was back on solid ground.

They were both completely soaked, of course, but that didn't feel so bad to Cal considering how hot the temperature was now. They both also had streaks of whatever nasty scum had been in the bottom of the pipe down their fronts. Lindsey's hand was in her cleavage trying to scrape away the disgusting residue.

"Well," Cal said, "that was certainly fun, onward?"

"Yeahhhh, that was...something," Lindsey agreed, "let's get moving."

The pair once again fell into their familiar light jog with Cal guiding the blind Lindsey and they soon arrived at the next blindfold exchange station. To Cal it was kind of an unspoken agreement at this point that they would switch for each obstacle so he volunteered to take the blindfold, which Lindsey happily handed over.

-------------------D3S6-----------------(L)

Lindsey was more than happy to pass off the blindfold to Cal. Even though she knew she had a safe escape and even with the guy she pretty much fully trusted at this point, pushing yourself underwater in a confined space, completely blind, was still extremely stressful and she was happy to have her vision back. She grasped Cal's arm and they fell into their routine running rhythm. She thought they were moving at a solid pace, but couldn't help but mull how other teams were doing. Were they flying along at an 8 minute mile pace? At least nobody had passed them on this path, that was probably a good sign.

The fourth obstacle appeared after several minutes of jogging. Lindsey looked it over, it seemed straightforward. There was another pit filled with beet juice. This one was pretty wide, she guessed at least 50 feet to cross it. To cross there were two ropes, one just above the surface that looked like a pretty typical climbing rope. About 5 feet above that, at shoulder height, was a second rope, although this one was much thinner. The top rope wouldn't hold their body weight, it was for balance, the lower rope would hold most of the weight. She climbed up to test them. It seemed pretty easy, but then she remembered why this wasn't so simple: Cal couldn't see.

Lindsey decided she would test how difficult this would be for Cal herself. She closed her eyes, then took a sideways step along the lower rope. Without being able to see where she was stepping it was hard to get her foot in the right spot to balance on the rope. She realized that while Cal could definitely make it across his progress would be incredibly slow because he would have to move very deliberately. With how wide the pit was it would take forever.

Lindsey outlined the problem to Cal and thought about how she could speed things up. She couldn't hold on to Cal and guide him because that would put her off balance. She had an idea, if she could tie one of his legs to her's she could guide him along and they would both still have their hands free for balance.

"If I could tie one of your ankles to one of mine, like a three-legged race, I could guide you so you could take longer strides, but I can't think of anything we could use," she explained to Cal. He had kind of an odd look on his face, as if he wanted to say something but was hesitant.

"If you've got an idea, spit it out," she instructed, "remember, total trust."

"Ok," he said a bit hesitantly, "do you think we could tear a strip of clothing off and use that?"

"Yes! Good idea!" exclaimed Lindsey.

Lindsey preferred workout tops that came down to her waist rather than the more cropped style that was in vogue. It was the style she had grown up wearing and she was a bit self-conscious about her stomach not being perfectly flat. She first tried to tear her shirt from the bottom but the stitching was too strong for her to easily rip. It would be easier to rip in the middle of her stomach, where the fabric was not reinforced, she realized. She easily tore a small hole near her belly button. Once that was down it was easy to tear a strip off. 'Well, now it's a crop top, at least I'm more sytlish,' Lindsey thought to herself.

Lindsey guided Cal to the start of the obstacle then tied her left foot to his right just above their ankles using the cloth strip. She stepped up onto the tight rope with one foot, then guided him up as well. The plan worked perfectly; Lindsey was able to take long, careful strides, then guide Cal to follow her. They made it across in less than two minutes by Lindsey's estimation and with no real close calls. She helped Cal dismount then untied them and rushed off towards the next obstacle.

-------------------D3S7--------------------(C)

After more jogging, with the customary blindfold swap at the midpoint, Cal and Lindsey arrived at the next obstacle. Cal was completely baffled when the obstacle came into view. There was a pit filled with juice again, although this was the first time Cal had seen one, that they had to get across. There was a low wall on the opposite side, he guessed it was to prevent people just trying to long jump across as the pit was not very wide. It would also make climbing out of the pit doubly difficult if they fell in. Above the pit was a large metal hook, like a meat hook, which was attached to a sturdy wooden beam. It seemed obvious to Cal that the idea was to use a rope to swing across. There was one problem though: they had no rope and he didn't see any viable options.

"Lindsey, I have bad news, I have no clue how to get across this obstacle without going through the pit," Cal verbalized his frustration.

"If you think we need to just take the time penalty that's fine, I don't mind, I'm already filthy," Lindsey said. She had misunderstood his comment as asking her if she didn't mind getting dirty.

"That would be a 10 minute time penalty, no idea if we can take that and still win. It also looks like it would be quite difficult to climb out of, there's like a 2 or 3 foot high wall on the opposite side we'd have to get over," Cal explained, he couldn't help but let a little frustration seep into his tone.

"That's ok," Lindsey said in calming voice, "don't get flustered, we've overcome all kinds of crazy obstacles this weekend. There's a solution, we just have to find it. Talk me through the problem, even though I can't see talking about it might help."

"Thanks," Cal said. Lindsey's kind words helped him re-focus. He began explaining the obstacle and how he couldn't see a solution. They talked through a couple possibilities, including backtracking to see if they had missed something. Then they heard a noise from back down the trail the way they had come, people shouting. It had to be another team. Cal thought both voices sounded female, that would make it Cara and Bailey - the team they couldn't lose to. He looked at Lindsey, fear in his eyes at potentially letting them down, then realized she couldn't see. Maybe it was the fear of losing, maybe it was looking at his partner, but suddenly Cal knew exactly how to get across.

"You trust me completely, right Lindsey?" Cal asked.

"Yes, 100% trust in you at this point, no hesitation," Lindsey answered immediately.

Cal walked to Lindsey, grabbed the new hem of her top and pulled upwards. She wasn't sure what he was trying to do initially but caught on quickly and raised her hands so he could pull it off. He dropped the top and pulled off her sports bra. This was the real prize. He tested the strength of it by stretching it. He was pleased that it seemed to be a high quality brand and very strong. Next he stripped off her leggings. He was a bit worried these might not have the requisite strength to hold their weight, but as he pulled at them he thought they could get by. The final piece were his own shorts, which he knew would be plenty strong as they were made of a strong synthetic material and had internal padding since they were designed as bike shorts.

He put one leg of the leggings through an arm hole of the bra, then stripped off his own shorts and put the other leg of the leggings through the leg of his shorts. Then he tied the legs of the leggings together with a strong knot. He estimated the makeshift rope was about 5 feet long. The straps of the bra would give him a good chance of snagging the hook when he tossed the rope and they would hold onto his shorts. He thought the weakpoint was probably still the leggings, but this was their only chance.

"Guessing you made a rope, this isn't just an excuse to get me undressed?" Lindsey inquired.

"Yes, let me lead you over to the edge of the pit, then I'll hopefully be able to get it on the hook with your bra straps," Cal explained his plan.

Cal eyed up the hook he would have to snare. It seemed doable but his experience throwing ropes, much less a weird ad hoc clothes rope, was zero. Luck was on his side though, and his toss landed the end of the rope perfectly on the hook.

"Got it!" he exclaimed, "now let's see how far we can stretch it so we can get a bit of a running start."

That turned out to not be very far, only a few steps from the edge of the pit.

"Ok, here's my plan," Cal said, "You take two big strides then jump, but jump a little bit sideways so your momentum carries you over the pit but also towards me. Then grab on to me, hug me as best you can, and pull your legs up high so that they don't hit the juice in the pit and we can clear the wall on the other side. I will take one more stride than you since I can see where the edge is and launch. Then when we clear the wall I'll release the rope. Make sense?"

"Yes, I think so, let's do a quick practice run in slow motion," Lindsey suggested.

The voices down the trail still seemed pretty far off so Cal figured that was a good suggestion. Once Lindsey was confident they positioned themselves for the real thing.

On the count of three they began their semi-choreographed movements. As planned Lindsey took two steps then leapt, wrapping arms around Cal's neck and her legs around his waist. Cal pushed off with all his might from the edge of the pit. As they swung over the surface of the liquid, Cal raised his legs as if he was doing a leg lift at the gym to make sure he wouldn't touch the liquid. He thought he heard something begin to tear, but luckily the makeshift rope held and they cleared the wall on the opposite bank. He extended his legs towards the ground and released the rope. For a second he thought they might have a comfortable landing, but then he stumbled a bit, which caused Lindsey to panic since she couldn't see, and Lindsey tried to unwrap herself from him quickly. That threw Cal further off balance; they managed to trip over each other and fall. Luckily there was a nice patch of grass, so it wasn't as painful of a landing as their previous misadventures.

"Hey, at least we didn't land on one another this time!" exclaimed Cal, helping up Lindsey.

"Yesssss, we made it, we're so close, lead on," Lindsey exhorted him.

Cal held her arm and they began their choreographed jog again. Cal was relieved to discover they didn't have to go far, just a few hundred yards further on he saw a small stretch of finishing tape between a pair of posts with Laurie standing near by.

"We got it, we did it, oh my gosh, I can't believe it, I see the finish line!" Cal yelled. He was over the moon with excitement as they crossed the finish line and turned to embrace Lindsey.

-------------------D3S8---------------------(L)

Lindsey hugged Cal back; she was ecstatic they had won after all the trials and tribulations of the weekend.

"Alright, well congratulations I suppose," Laurie said, "you can take off the blindfold, Lindsey."

Lindsey was immediately on guard...something wasn't right. Laurie was always incredibly enthusiastic at the end of challenges. Lindsey had even begun to suspect Laurie was secretly rooting for her and Cal. But the organizer's tone was one of almost suspicion, or maybe resignation.

'Did we miss something? Did we do something wrong?' Lindsey thought to herself, her mind swirling. She slipped off her blindfold and blinked a few times as her eyes readjusted to the light. They were in a small clearing in the forest. Laurie had a small card table with a chair and laptop but had risen and was walking towards them.

"Ok please stand with your feet shoulder width apart, arms to the sides with hands over your heads. Same way you do when you through the scanner at the airport," Laurie instructed.

Laurie's orders reminded Lindsey that she was naked aside from her panties and her first instinct was to cover herself. She reminded herself that Cal wasn't seeing anything he hadn't before and Laurie wasn't going to do anything untoward but she still felt embarrassed standing there in so little clothing. She adopted the pose that Laurie had told them to, and bemusedly thought back to when she had gone through security at O'Hare Airport two days ago before her flight down and had to do this pose.

Laurie approached them with a sour look on her face. Lindsey was racking her brain trying to figure out what they had done wrong, but couldn't think of anything. She looked at Cal with a raised eyebrow and he gave a small shrug to indicate he was equally clueless. Laurie circled around both of them, staring at their bodies, then stopped behind Lindsey and squatted down. Lindsey glanced over her shoulder and the other woman seemed to be staring at her butt. 'What the hell is going on?' Lindsey thought to herself, had Laurie suddenly become some sort of weird pervert? She had previously really liked her but was suddenly questioning everything.

"I'll be damned," Laurie muttered after a few seconds of close examination of Lindsey's rear. "I apologize for giving you two the close examination, it's just that normally when a team finishes without wearing everything they started out with it's because they are trying to avoid the time penalty for having fallen in one of the pits. That's why I was looking so closely at your butt, Lindsey, the light pink of your panties would have stained from the beet juice. I do have to ask though, where the heck are your clothes?"

"I used them to fashion a rope to get us over the last obstacle," Cal explained, clearly proud of the solution he'd come up with. It had been clever, Lindsey agreed, but Laurie stared at them dumbfounded.

"Did you not see the sign to take one from the box after the second to last obstacle? You know that one with ropes?" the older woman asked incredulously.

"Uh, I was blindfolded at the time, so no..." Cal answered and looked at Lindsey. Lindsey felt herself blushing and started to stammer an explanation. Laurie began chuckling, and kept laughing harder and harder. Lindsey could tell she was turning what had happened over in her head and finding it hilarious.

"Wow! You two..." Laurie said once she had her laughter partially in check, "we have seen a lot of great teams out here come up with some amazing solutions to our challenges. I'm not sure we've ever seen a pair as determined as you though. I can tell you with certainty we've never had a team miss the rope and still win this challenge. That does happen, teams missing the rope clue, but it's always curtains for them as a result. Truly I'm impressed, I'm honestly stunned that you could overcome it, I just can't believe it. Congratulations, you two are more than worthy champions."

Lindsey found herself blushing even harder. She also became self-conscious about the fact she was topless and put one arm across her chest to cover her breasts as best she could.

"Anyways," Laurie continued, "let's get the customary winning team picture." She pulled out a slightly dated digital camera and indicated they should stand together at the finish line.

"Erm, at the risk being accused of further white knighting, would you like to borrow my shirt for the picture?" Cal offered.

"I'm going to call that gentlemanly, thank you Cal," Lindsey replied, grinning. He removed his shirt and passed it to her.

"Laurie, you are absolutely, 100% positive these pictures can't be stolen, correct?" Lindsey inquired.

"Yes, only on a local area network, no internet connection," Laurie confirmed.

"Alright then," Lindsey muttered, and with a deep breath she tossed Cal's shirt aside, put one arm around his shoulders and put her opposite hand with her index finger pointing skyward, the universal 'we're #1' gesture and put a big smile on her face. Of course that also meant getting photographed with her top fully exposed but she had decided she trusted Laurie. She imagined they must be a sight, her in nothing but her dirty underpants, Cal wearing just his tight spandex boxer briefs that left little to the imagination. Laurie snapped the photo and told them they looked great.

Before Lindsey could form a response the trio's attention was drawn to the sounds of another team approaching. Cal, apparently self-conscious, grabbed his shirt off the ground and slipped it on. Lindsey reaffixed her arm to cover herself as best she could.

Lindsey wasn't surprised to see it was Bailey and Cara approaching. The ladies had been their closest competition all weekend and had been close to finishing the bike leg when she and Cal had left the mess hall. She was surprised to see that Cara had rather obviously had a dip in one of the beet juice pits. Even with her darker complexion and dark colored swimsuit the stain of deep purple juice was unmissable. The pair jogged up and Laurie let Cara, who had been wearing it, know she could remove the blindfold.

"Well congrats you two," Bailey said, "we wanted to win, but if we can't we would certainly prefer to lose to you." The girls looked a bit dejected but were being good sports, the two teams exchanged fist bumps and words of congratulation for finishing the taxing course.

"Agreed, congratulations to all four of you, very stiff competition this week, particularly for first time participants. I'm very impressed," Laurie congratulated them. "Cara and Bailey, clock is ticking on your penalty, if another team does not arrive in the next four minutes and..." she glanced at her watch "...22 seconds, then you will get the second place prize. Cal and Lindsey, you're free to head back."

"I think we'll head back to the last obstacle if that's ok," Lindsey said, "I'm curious to see this makeshift rope swing." She did not add that she was also hopeful that she could track down some more clothing.

"We'll wait here for you before heading back to camp, if that's ok?" Bailey suggested.

"Yeah, that'd be awesome, see you in a few," Lindsey answered smiling. She felt like there was a fledgling friendship between the four of them and looked forward to spending a bit more time together before they all went home.

"I'm still kind of amazed we were able to pull off the win," Lindsey whispered once they were out of earshot of the others.

"Yeah..." Cal paused, "honestly I kind of am too. We were such a mess yesterday. I know we sort of reset this morning, but I felt like my shitty performance in the swim leg trashed all that. Sorry about that, by the way, I knew I wouldn't be great, but that was pretty embarrassing."

"Eh, no need to apologize, we got it done. And you were fantastic in the bike leg and on the run/obstacle part. I fucked up there," Lindsey pointed out. "Thank you for helping me overcome MY fuckup.

"Any time," Cal said with a smile. "I guess it probably is the mark of a good team that we pick each other up when the other struggles, eh?"

"Amen to that," Lindsey said. She felt like the appropriate gesture here was hug or fist bump but she felt awkward since they were walking side by side and settled for a squeeze of Cal's bicep. He looked at her with an amused half smile and Lindsey cringed at her awkwardness, but appreciated that Cal let her be herself.

They arrived back at the last obstacle after a short walk. Lindsey thought the structure over the pit reminded her of a gallows. They walked up to the edge of the pit and it was immediately obvious there was no way they could get the clothes down. Even if they hopped into the pit they could barely reach the bottom of the rope. With a sigh Lindsey began picking her way around the edge of the pit to the other side. This would have been cheating during the competition but she figured it was fine now.

She was able to recover her top, now more crop top length. The once blue fabric was now stained red from her little session with Annie, and black from the sludge of the pipe obstacle. Despite its ragged condition, it was better than nothing and she happily slipped it on. Cal offered a sarcastic high five, which she returned with fake enthusiasm with a smile. They laughed together at the silliness, then headed back to the finish line.

They met up with Bailey and Cara, who were celebrating that the 5 minute penalty period was up and they were officially second. Laurie advised them to just go back via the short, 2 km, path to get back to main camp and pointed them in the right direction, once again offering warm congratulatory words and bottles of water. Lindsey guessed it was now at least 10:00 in the morning and the temperature was rising quickly. Despite that, she was barely sweating and realized she was probably pretty dehydrated; the water was a good idea. The four drank their water as they walked and chatted about the day so far.

They had only been walking for a few minutes and passed one obstacle when they rounded a bend in the trail and found Stefan and Annie only a few yards away. Stefan was wearing the blindfold but Annie's face dropped as soon as she saw the quartet.

"Guessing this means you have all finished already then?" she asked.

"Yeah, sorry to burst your bubble," Cara replied.

"Shit, well congratulations I guess. Stefan twisted his ankle and we've been stuck on this obstacle," Annie explained. She looked and sounded completely dejected.

Lindsey looked over the obstacle they were stuck on. It seemed like it might be kind of like the climbing wall that had been the first obstacle on their path. However, there weren't any handholds on this wall. It was smooth wooden boards up to about face height for Annie, so perhaps 5 feet. After that the boards were staggered to create 'steps' but the width of the steps couldn't have been more than a couple inches. They weren't wide enough to get more than a fingertip hold on so pulling yourself up would have been virtually impossible. Instead of a pad at the base of the wall there was an ankle deep mud puddle. Lindsey realized that if Stefan couldn't give Annie a big boost with his bad ankle, there was no way they could realistically expect to scale the obstacle. Even if he could, she didn't see how he could pull himself up.

"Hey, think we should maybe help them?" she said quietly to Cal and the other girls.

The trio looked at her in surprise, and she realized that even with the antics in the mess hall, which she hadn't had time to explain yet, they all assumed she still hated Annie.

"Uh, yeah, I guess we could," Bailey answered. "They're just playing for pride at this point, right? It shouldn't hurt anybody and not being able to finish would suck."

Cal and Cara expressed their agreement and the group formed a quick plan to help. Cal and Bailey would boost up the stuck competitors while Cara and Lindsey would go to the top of the wall and help pull them up.

Lindsey led Cara to the ramp on the backside of the wall and they trudged up it. It was predictably muddy and treacherous. Realizing that she could reach the furthest and be best anchored if she was prone, Lindsey laid down on her stomach in the mud, giving the front of her already filthy and skimpy outfit another thorough coating of mud.

"Ha, of course, more mud," Cara muttered, "well it's not like we can get much dirtier anyway, right?" She followed Lindsey's lead and laid down on her stomach to Lindsey's left.

"Way of the camp, eh?" Lindsey laughed.

"Yeah, I guess it doesn't bother me that much, kind of did the first few times though," Cara said.

Lindsey agreed, in fact she sort of was enjoying laying in this mud. It was nice and cool as well as soft. She wriggled a little subtly and enjoyed the way she could feel it sliding over the skin of her lower stomach and thighs.

At the base of the wall Cal and Bailey seemed to have formed a plan to boost Annie up first. Cal got on one knee with hands together in the classic boost position. Annie stepped onto his hands and once she was off the ground Bailey grabbed her other foot. Together they raised up the slender girl until Cara and Lindsey could each grab a hand to pull her up. By the time Annie was high enough for Bailey and Cal not to be able to help anymore she could get some purchase on the slatted wall with feet while Lindsey and Cara rose to kneeling positions and could then pull her the rest of the way up.

"Thank you both so much!" Annie exclaimed. "I'll help as much as I can with Stefan." Cara and Lindsey had resumed their prone positions ready to help pull the big man up. She plopped herself between Lindsey and Cara. Lindsey recoiled briefly - Annie was of course filthy with only specks of her pink outfit visible beneath the mud - but quickly realized she didn't really care if some got rubbed on her and relaxed.

Getting Stefan up was a bit more of a challenge. For one thing he was much heavier than Annie, and he was blindfolded as well as be careful of his sprained left ankle. Lindsey suggested that Cara go down and help since now Annie was at the top of the ramp and a third person wasn't all that helpful pulling up Stefan. Cara agreed and headed down to help.

"Thanks again for choosing to help us," Annie said to Lindsey. "I know it's cheating and we would be disqualified if this mattered, but it would really suck to have to give up." The petite woman reached over and gave Lindsey's shoulder an affectionate squeeze. "Oh, and I like your panties by the way, really cute. Why did you end up with so few clothes though? I thought I had the monopoly on that here."

Before Lindsey could explain why she was half naked, their attention was diverted to what was going on at the base of the wall. Bailey, the shortest of the trio trying to boost Stefan, had gotten on all fours and Cara guided Stefan to step onto her back. Lindsey saw his injured leg buckle as he tried to step up leading with his good leg. Cal was able to steady him but Lindsey could tell the ankle was really weak. Using Bailey as a stepping stool got Stefan within a few feet of being able to reach Lindsey and Annie's outstretched arms, so Cal and Cara only had to boost him a few more feet before they could begin helping, which they did. Bailey popped up and also helped push him upwards. Annie and Lindsey didn't really have enough strength to pull big Stefan all the way up, but once his good foot could get some purchase on the slats he was able to help, and once he got his hands on the edge of the wall he was able to use his upper body strength to pull himself up with an assist from the ladies.

When he finally hauled himself far enough up to get a knee over the lip of the wall he gave a final push up and over the wall and collapsed, breathing heavily. After a moment to catch his breath he thanked Lindsey and the others profusely for their help. She and Annie helped him to his feet and he put his left arm around Annie to support his injured ankle.

"Would you like to just head back with us now that you've overcome this obstacle?" Lindsey asked. "You're nearly at the finish and you know it doesn't count for anything. You don't want to aggravate the injury."

"Thank you, but no, I think it's a matter of pride for us to finish now," Stefan replied in his polite, soft-spoken British accent. Annie nodded in agreement.

"Alright, well I know we've had our ups and downs, but it was, in the end, a pleasure competing against you two," Lindsey said. She extended her hand to Annie who accepted the handshake with a firm grip. She then guided Stefan's hand to Lindsey's and they exchanged a handshake as well. The couple then turned and began carefully descending the ramp and heading towards the finish, Annie guiding her blinded and injured husband.

Lindsey turned back to her three compatriots at the base of the wall and offered an exaggerated double thumbs up and smile with a congratulatory shout. She felt a bit goofy but that seemed to fit the mood and she was glad they had helped out Annie and Stefan and ended on good terms with them.

Rather than descend the ramp she thought it would be funny to jump into the mud puddle at the base of the wall and splash her three compatriots. She jumped down, creating a big splash which sprayed Cal, Bailey and Cara with dirty water. Unfortunately, Lindsey hadn't considered how slippery the bottom of a mud puddle might be and lost her balance, falling unceremoniously on her ass in the shallow water. She had a brief flashback to her similar mishap yesterday morning but was glad this slip up was far less consequential. The other three were laughing at her, and she couldn't help but join in chuckling at things. She also noticed the water felt kind of nice; it was getting to be late morning so the temperature was starting to rise rapidly but the water was still nice and cool.

"You know, this actually feels kinda nice," she commented.

"Ooooh that's a great call!" Bailey exclaimed. "I bet the lake is nice and cool still, it'd feel great, shall we all go take a dip?"

They agreed that was a good idea and Cal offered a hand to his teammate and pulled her to her feet.

"Awww, Lindsey, the last moderately clean part of you is dirty now," Bailey said, motioning to Lindsey's rear and chuckling.

Lindsey contorted herself to look over her shoulder and realized that, yes, her butt was now slathered with mud and the previously clean rear of her underwear was now caked with mud.

"So do I get some sort of like, AARC achievement medal for thoroughly ruining another garment?" she asked jokingly as the group began their walk back to the main camp area.

---------------------------D3S9---------------------------(C)

"Sorry buddy, I don't think they have those here," Cal replied to Lindsey's question with a smile. "However they do have week-long free vacations for winners."

"Ugh, twist the knife much?" Cara said with exasperation that was mostly faked, but Cal could tell there was a kernel of annoyance in it.

"Oops sorry, didn't mean to rub things in, I apologize," Cal said sheepishly. "Maybe you guys can come visit for part of the week or something?"

"Hmmm interesting idea," Bailey replied, "we might take you up on that."

"How long is the drive for you all? I assume it's a drive not flight, right?" Lindsey asked.

"Yeah, drive, it's like 4 hours and change," Bailey explained.

"Alright, we'll talk it over and circle back with you guys," Cal said, mulling various possibilities. It seemed great right now, but would they all really want to hang out together months from now? He wasn't sure, but it wasn't something they needed to belabor.

"Nice, thanks for being cool about it," Bailey said. "Sooooo...I do have to ask, how did you all end up in this state of undress? I saw you made a rope, and I actually used it, but don't understand why you did that."

Lindsey sighed, "I missed where I guess we were supposed to grab a rope at the second-to-last obstacle, so Cal was totally stumped when we got to the last one," she explained. "So he came up with the idea to create a makeshift rope, but there was no way we could get them down after. Sorry for having so little on."

"It's nothing to apologize for, huge respect to you guys for pulling out the win, besides it's not as if you're showing particularly more than we are in swimsuits," Cara pointed out.

"Thanks, I know you're right, but it just feels wrong to be walking around in my underwear, with no bra on to boot," Lindsey said.

Cal understood what Lindsey meant. The compression underwear he was wearing didn't show off much more than a pair of spandex cycling shorts, but he felt a certain discomfort just knowing they were not supposed to be a garment anyone else saw. Unlike cycling shorts they didn't have a pad built into the crotch so he felt like he probably had a bit of a bulge. That wasn't ideal considering that the discussion of Lindsey's minimal outfit and the accompanying visuals were on the verge of getting him aroused. He decided this was an ideal time to change the subject.

"So, speaking of unfortunate outfits, how did you end up in the juice?" he asked Cara.

"Ugh, it was on that second obstacle, I guess I just misjudged a jump? Honestly I'm not exactly sure since I couldn't see. Perhaps my idiot partner can shed a bit more?" she mockingly glared at Bailey.

"Hey now, let's not throw wild accusations around," Bailey joked. "It was on that third jump, she just didn't go quite far enough and I couldn't haul her in, bummer. We were able to move a lot faster afterwards though. Cara just wore her blindfold the whole time and waded through the juice pits, the only obstacle we actually had to do was the pipe with the water and the slime."

Cal clocked a smug look from Lindsey, she was reveling in the realization that they had still been handily the fastest, he guessed. He felt like he was a pretty competitive person, but Lindsey was next level.

"That pipe was the worst," Lindsey said, Cal noticed an undertone of triumph in her voice despite trying to sound disgusted.

"You think it was bad in normal workout clothes, imagine how it felt in a one piece swimsuit," Bailey complained.

Cal and Lindsey both looked at her in confusion, not understanding.

Bailey raised her eyebrows at the pair, pointing initially at the opening formed by her cleavage, then trailing down her stomach and pointing at her crotch.

"Oooo" Lindsey and Cal murmured in unison, realization of the problem dawning on them.

"Yeah, not so nice having that nasty sludge sloshing around down there, and these suits are pretty tight since they're designed for exercise swimming, hold things in pretty well," Cara pointed out.

Cal was once again battling against getting too aroused as his companions pointed out the tight clothes and described the substances sloshing around their nether regions. Fortunately for him, by that point they were just walking up to the lake and he hurried down the pier and launched himself into the water before his anatomy could betray him.

-------------D3S10------------------(L)

Lindsey trotted after Cal into the lake, crossing the narrow sandy beach rather than using the pier, but she soon realized why he was in such a hurry as she splashed into waist deep water: it was wonderfully cool and refreshing. She sank down so her shoulders were below the water and reveled in the cooling sensation after the intensity of the competition in the increasingly hot and humid morning air.

"Aaaah this feels wonderful," Cara sighed, "great idea Linds, or Bae? Both of you? Either way this is great."

"It feels really nice to cool down, the water is so refreshing. Funny to think it was only a few hours ago we were all swimming as hard as we could across this," Lindsey reflected.

"Were we all though?" Bailey asked and cast a pointed glance at Cal, making light of his struggles on the swim leg.

"Hey! He tried his best you bitch!" Lindsey laughed and began splashing water at Bailey, who ducked under the water. "Need I remind you who got completely crushed during the bike leg?" Lindsey asked mockingly when the blonde resurfaced.

"But, there were distractions!" Bailey exclaimed.

Cara guffawed at her friend's protestations. "Weird how they only seemed to work on you," she pointed out.

Bailey blushed bright red, her embarrassment obvious. "It was just distracting because it was funny, I was way ahead of you anyway, Cara. Superior fitness and all," she huffed.

"Sure you tell yourself whatever you need to, you little horndog," Cara teased her friend.

Bailey grunted in annoyance and submerged herself again rather than argue. Cara winked at Lindsey and the pair giggled. The conversation died down a bit after that and Lindsey took a moment to admire her surroundings. She realized she hadn't taken time to really appreciate the scenery all weekend. Beautiful tree lined slopes rose around them, the sky was a crystal blue with a few wispy clouds. And it was quiet, wonderfully quiet compared to what she was used to in Chicago. With all the competition and talking and instructions and, unfortunately, arguing this weekend she hadn't really appreciated the quiet beauty of the landscape before now. Without even really thinking she reached out to Cal under the water and grabbed his hand giving it a squeeze. He gave her a surprised look but then squeezed her hand. They held hands and wordlessly appreciated their surroundings.

Bailey distracted them from their reverie as she started to fiddle with something below her waist. After a few moments she seemingly gave up and pulled the straps of her swimsuit off her shoulders. The water was too brown for Lindsey to see anything but she appeared to strip off her suit. Lindsey's suspicions were confirmed when Bailey pulled her suit to the surface and tossed it at Cara.

"Oh my gosh that feels so good, I finally got that disgusting slime from the tunnel obstacle away from my cooch," Bailey exclaimed. Cara rolled her eyes at her friend's crude language but couldn't help but laugh. "You guys can't see anything, right, the water is too dark? Not trying to be an exhibitionist out here," Bailey asked.

"You're fine," Cal confirmed.

"Ok cool, didn't want to be weird, but this feels so much better. Getting that nasty stuff out of my suit but also skinny dipping feels so freeing. You joining me babe?" she asked Cara.

The taller woman shook her head, a small blush visible despite her darker features.

"Suit yourself, slime tail," Bailey mocked her.

Cara balled up Bailey's suit and hurled back at her smaller friend. Bailey caught it giggling and let it float near her. Lindsey was starting to really enjoy their fun and playful dynamic.

"I'm not judging you, Cara," Lindsey, sympathizing with the taller girl. "If I had that nasty slime down there I would want it out. And I promise you we really can't see anything."

Cara sighed and with resignation stripped off her swimsuit, being careful to keep only her head above water to protect her modesty.

"Ok, so weirdness aside, I have to admit Bailey had a point. Between getting the slime off my nether regions and being naked in this cool water, this really does feel fantastic," Cara proclaimed. "So are you two going to join us?"

Lindsey was taken aback by the normally reserved Cara's proposition. Before she could formulate an answer she noticed Annie and Stefan walking across the field and waved to them. The pair waved back and walked towards the edge of the lake. They were just as covered in mud as when Lindsey had last seen them. Stefan definitely had a limp but didn't seem to be in too much pain.

"How's the ankle doing Stef?" Bailey called as their former foes approached the water's edge.

"It's ok, tender, hurts a bit but just throbbing pain, not sharp. I am fairly certain it is a mere sprain, but the timing was not ideal," he replied.

"Well the water is still pretty cool, hasn't warmed up yet, not as good as ice, but might help a bit, not to mention it feels nice to cool off if you want to join us," Lindsey suggested.

Stefan and Annie waded into the lake and dropped below the surface once the water was deep enough. They resurfaced with at least the worst layer of filth washed off.

"This is tremendously refreshing, and nice to get a bit of weight off my ankle, thank you for the suggestion," Stefan said politely. "Would any of you be offended if I discard my shirt? It is a bit unpleasant now that it is soaked."

"Ha, well sounds like you'll fit in just fine with this crew," Lindsey said wryly. Annie perked up at that, looking around at the others. Grinning, Bailey rose up a few inches to the top of her shoulders was visible. Lindsey watched as Annie connected the dots, seeing the lack of straps then noticing the swimsuit floating next to the blonde.

"I thought I had the monopoly on shameless behavior around here!" Annie laughed.

"Well, to be fair, our reason for stripping down was a bit more functional, we had this disgusting sludge from one of the obstacles stuck in the bottom of our suits," Cara explained, "it was not very pleasant."

"Swimming in the cool water with no clothes is quite nice though, we've discovered," Bailey added. "Not like you can see anything inappropriate with how brown the water is anyway."

"Well it's not like it takes a lot of convincing to get me out of my clothes," Annie said with a smile. Lindsey rolled her eyes at that comment while Annie proceeded to strip, although with her short stature nothing inappropriate was on display. She wrung out both garments and tossed them to the shore to dry. Stefan did the same with his shirt. Lindsey exchanged a brief look with Cal, were they the weird ones now for wearing clothes? He shrugged, seemingly fine with the status quo, which reassured her.

The group discussed some of the different obstacles and experiences they had during the course of the day. Stefan explained how his team had decided to try the short route with more obstacles since they had come out of the bike leg last (albeit not too far behind the others) and didn't think they probably had the fitness to catch the other teams. Bringing up the bike leg led to a fresh round of teasing of Bailey about how the distraction had worked on her and her maintaining her defense she just thought it was funny. That caused Annie to bring up how it very obviously worked on the guys from Team 1, especially Tommy, and the group had a laugh at his expense. Lindsey found herself actually appreciating Annie's blunt nature, and discovered Stefan was quite funny as well once he got more comfortable.

"Alright, well we have a frightfully long car journey ahead of us, so I think we had best go prepare for our departure," Stefan said. "While the experience here was markedly different from what we expected, we enjoyed ourselves and are better for having made acquaintances with you four."

"Do you think you will be having any more, umm, familiar relations?" Cara asked, clearly feeling awkward about having to bring it up.

Annie looked at her quizzically, "Uh, we don't exactly have a plan, we tend to be pretty spontaneous. Why do you ask? Want to join?"

Cara flushed, embarrassed, Bailey giggled at her friend's discomfort and explained; "I think we'll pass, thank you, it's just that the walls are paper thin and if things were going to be noisy we thought we might give you two some time," the blonde explained.

Annie looked aghast, embarrassed, she exchanged a look with Stefan, who looked equally distraught.

"I didn't realize," she said softly, "all of you have heard us?" She got four nods in return.

"Oh no, I am so sorry," Annie said, she looked almost on the verge of tears. Lindsey was confused, self-proclaimed shameless Annie was embarrassed? The smaller girl took a deep breath and seemed to compose herself a bit.

"Early on in our relationship we decided we wanted to be open and sex positive. Be open to trying new things and enjoying life's journey. However, we also agreed that full consent had to be part of everything we did sexually, that's why I didn't push it with you yesterday, Cal. Blasting you with the various noises we've generated over the last few days without your consent was wrong, and I am really sorry about that." Lindsey noted her reference to Cal and filed that away to ask him about later.

"Well said, Annie, I would just like to reiterate it was not our intention to force you all to listen and I really apologize for it. After all, ball gags exist for a reason," Stefan said, adding a touch of levity to the suddenly tension-filled atmosphere.

Nobody said anything for a moment, processing everything. Lindsey had to admit she was impressed, she had thought the married couple just didn't care what others thought, but understanding their thinking increased her level of respect for them.

"Well, as I recall, you did manage to improvise a gag on at least one occasion," Cal piped up. Lindsey remembered the episode from Friday night after the first challenge and burst out in laughter. It took Stefan and Annie a moment to catch on but they couldn't help but chuckle once they did. Bailey and Cara looked confused.

Lindsey couldn't help herself, "Be quiet, you dirty slut or I'll shove these nasty slimy panties in your whore mouth," she said with her voice artificially deep, imitating Stefan. Bailey and Cara laughed, realizing who she was quoting.

"Fucking do it and do meeee," Cal responded, in a falsetto voice, imitating Annie from a few days ago. "I think you two may have already bailed before that part," Cal said to Bailey and Cara, his voice returning to normal, the two women were laughing hard and even Stefan and Annie were chuckling a bit at their antics.

"Seriously though," Lindsey said, her tone also back to normal, "I really do appreciate you apologizing and considering others. As long as you don't mind a bit of good natured teasing, of course."

"Ha, I think that's more than fair," Annie replied, "glad we can all laugh about it, even if it's at my expense. We do need to head in though, I promise we will be as quiet as church mice. Stefan, would you be a dear and toss me my clothes."

Lindsey pointed out that it was sort of pointless considering how many times they had seen Annie exposed over the weekend. Annie explained that those occasions were in the context of the game, this would not have been. Lindsey could tell Annie was still a bit shaken by the revelation they had been including others without consent in their activities, but she also could kind of see the odd logic. Certain things were sort of acceptable in the context of winning the game that wouldn't be otherwise. The couple re-dressed, Annie maintaining her decency by doing so underwater and walked towards the cabin after bidding everyone goodbye and safe travels.

"Well those were certainly some interesting revelations," Bailey observed.

"Yeah," Lindsey agreed, "although I do kind of admire how healthy a relationship they have, or at least seem to have based on that conversation. It's very modern and thoughtful."

"Yeah, I agree with you," Cara added, "I did not like the vibe from those two at all at first, but they have kind of grown on me. I'm not sure I would ever be close friends with them, but I do respect them." The four all seemed to agree with that sentiment and they relaxed, enjoying the peaceful surroundings.

"Well, we probably should head in as well," Bailey sighed after a few minutes. "We don't have that crazy of a drive but it is still a pretty good hike, and we'd like to collect on our brunch, I'm starving and that place looked really good when we were there yesterday."

"I really enjoyed meeting and competing with you both, I hope we get to do both again some time," Cal said warmly. He started to make his way towards them for a hug, then seemed to realize that was inappropriate considering their attire, or lack thereof, and awkwardly waved. The three women laughed at his awkwardness.

"Give us a sec, give us a sec," Bailey giggled, "I would like a hug." She and Cara struggled to get their suits on. "Damn this is harder than it looks. Um, could we have a moment of privacy please?"

Lindsey and Cal turned to look away from the pair. She moved closer to him and he tentatively put an arm around her shoulder. She liked that and gave a small wiggle of her shoulders to try to show she did.

"Ok we're all set now," Cara called. Lindsey and Cal turned around and the four exchanged hugs. They all agreed they would stay in touch and thanked each other again for the companionship over the weekend.

"They're good people," Cal observed, "I'm glad we met them this weekend." His tone was a bit morose.

"Totally agree. I hope our paths cross again," Lindsey said.

She pondered her next statement, but decided to just dive in. "So we've been messing around in the lake in our clothes for a bit now. I'm curious, does that turn you on? You know, the wet part of wet and messy."

"Hmmm, yes and no, I guess," Cal answered. "On one hand, yeah it kind of does, knowing you're in just your tank top and underwear and I'm wearing clothes not intended for swimming. But on the other hand it's not as if it's all that lewd or anything. In point of fact, we're both wearing far more in terms of coverage than we'd typically wear at a beach. So there's a little thrill from wearing things in the water we're not supposed to, but I'm not, like, out of my mind over here."

"I guess that makes sense," Lindsey said, considering things. "I do feel a little bit weird, maybe even a little naughty, feeling the cloth stuck to my skin. It is a little bit off."

"Yeah, that's a good way to put it! Like I said, just a little thrill to it," Cal said.

"I kind of like it," Lindsey said shyly. Cal smiled at her. She was starting to feel some things about him. Things she wanted to express before they parted company.

"Ah crap here comes those tools from Team 1, I'm not really feeling talking to them. Let's move up against the bank, I don't think we'll be visible there." Cal gestured to an area to the right of the beach where they had entered the lake. Beside the beach there was a steep bank that almost overhung the water. Lindsey nodded her agreement and the duo half-walked half-swam over. Cal turned to face out towards the lake and reclined into the bank. Lindsey imitated him and felt the cool silt of the lake bottom against her back and bottom. It felt weird, a little icky, but also kind of relaxing and soft. The back of her head and her ponytail were above the water against the muddy bank but she wasn't overly concerned considering she was already filthy and could just dunk herself to wash off. The pair waited about 5 minutes, enjoying the peace and quiet of the rural landscape until they were sure Dillon and Tommy were back at the lodge.

"This is so peaceful," Lindsey said quietly, "I feel like I could lie here for hours."

"I know, I think with how focused we were on the game I never really took the opportunity to focus on the natural beauty of this place," Cal commented. "It's wonderful. I often wonder what it would be like to live in a place like this."

"I feel that," Lindsey sighed. She tentatively extended her hand under the water towards Cal. He got the hint and gently took her hand in his. Lindsey felt a sense of bliss and calm flow over her.

"Well, as much as I'd love to stay here forever, eventually we probably should go take advantage of the victory brunch," Cal said. Lindsey jolted upright, she realized she'd been on the verge of falling asleep during the few minutes of quiet.

"Sorry to disturb you," Cal laughed.

"No, no, it's ok, you're right," Lindsey said, gathering her wits. She wondered how long they'd been laying there. The sun wasn't all the way up in the sky, but it had to be at least 11 AM. She rose from her reclined position and dunked herself into the shallow lake water one more time to get some of the mud out of her hair. Cal did the same and they waded over to the ladder at the end of the pier before hauling themselves out of the water.

Lindsey imagined she was giving Cal a pretty good look at her body in her soaked clothes as she climbed the ladder onto the pier, but it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. If she was honest with herself she'd reached a point where she wanted him to look. She felt a strange mixture of admiration, attraction, and guilt towards him for how the last 24 hours had played out.

They made the short walk to the main lodge in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. They grabbed some of the old beach towels the organizers left on the porch and partially dried themselves off before going inside.

"Might as well shower together again," Lindsey suggested. "We can be ready for brunch sooner and it's nothing we haven't already seen."

Cal agreed and they got in and turned the water on, each taking one of the showerheads.

"I should be by now, but I'm still not used to showering with my clothes on," Cal said.

"You wouldn't want to get used to it though, right? Then you would miss the thrill."

"I guess you're right," Cal admitted.

Lindsey reflected on that. Now that she understood the mentality she did sort of get the appeal. There was a certain thrill standing under the cascading water in the remnants of her workout gear. She took her hair out of the ponytail it had been in all day and ran her hands through her brunette locks, trying to accelerate the process of washing the gunk out. She turned so her back was to the showerhead to get the water more focused on the worst of the tangles at the back of her head. Cal was doing something similar, albeit facing his showerhead. His hands were running through his hair, intent on trying to get the dirt and debris out. It caused his shirt to hike up and Lindsey couldn't help but notice how the wet material of his shirt adhered to his back muscles and the spandex of his underwear clung to his ass.

With a start, she realized something perhaps she had been denying to herself: she wanted him, again. Almost embarrassed by her revelation she turned away and contemplated what to do. She decided a logical first step was peeling off the destroyed remnants of her workout top, so she did that and dropped it to the shower floor with a loud plop. She glanced over her shoulder and was disappointed to discover Cal was still studiously turned away from her. She had a sudden revelation: he was trying to be a gentleman by not ogling her.

She felt two emotions clash inside her: appreciation that Cal was such a gentleman and frustration that he was ignoring her nudity. She mulled over a way to let him know it was ok, and she wanted him to see her. The classic solution hit her like a lightning bolt.

"Hey Cal, would you mind washing my back?" she asked, trying to strike a playful tone. She haphazardly grabbed a bar of soap and turned to offer it to Cal just as he turned around, presenting her nearly nude figure to him. She watched him do a double take and was secretly pleased at his reaction to seeing her so scantily clad. After handing him the bar of soap she turned away and ran her hands through her wet hair in a way she hoped was cute, before moving it to the side.

Cal, ever gentle, began to tentatively soap her up, starting at her shoulder blades and working his way downward. He was so thoughtful and thorough with his touch that Lindsey wished she could just get him to do her entire body, but despite their success that day, there was still so much baggage from yesterday that she didn't dare.

"Do you think my panties are salvageable?" she asked, thrusting her butt out subtly, trying to be flirtatious.

"I guess that depends on how much you worry about wearing permanently stained clothing," Cal replied, a slight chuckle in his voice.

"Well I guess if you think they can be washed out at all, maybe wash with the soap? Otherwise I guess I can take them off and shower properly," Lindsey said.

"Ermm" Cal stumbled awkwardly. Apparently Lindsey's flirtation was not coming across the way she wanted.

"I guess I should probably just take a look," Lindsey said. She put her thumbs into the waistband of her underwear, and with a deep breath whisked them off. She wasn't showing Cal anything he hadn't seen before, but it still felt risque fully exposing herself. She gave the underwear a cursory examination and realized why Cal had been hesitant. The mud she had plummeted into had permanently discolored the pink stripes and was also faintly visible on the green parts. The garment was definitely permanently stained.

"Yep, you were right, those won't wash out too easy, guess I'll just handle washing myself," Lindsey said. "Let me know if you want me to get your back." She hoped Cal would take her up on the offer.

"Uh that's ok, I think I'm almost done," Cal said. He was back to facing away from her, studiously avoiding looking at her naked form. He had stripped off his clothes while Lindsey removed her underwear and Lindsey admired his muscular back and butt.

"There's nothing over here you haven't seen before," Lindsey commented.

"Oh I know, it's not that, it's that when I look at you like this I, well, react," Cal said.

Lindsey realized he meant get hard. "And why do you think I would find that a bad thing?" Lindsey asked flirtatiously. She was secretly elated Cal reacted that way to her nudity, perhaps there was still hope.

"The parallel with yesterday, and then what happened after, it's just weird," Cal said. "Don't get me wrong, I want to, but it feels awkwardly like déjvu."

"Good point, maybe after brunch we can revisit?" Lindsey suggested hopefully.

"I would like that. And yeah, I'm starving," Cal replied.

Lindsey's heart leapt, there was still a possibility of something with Cal. "Yeah, good point, let's finish up and get over there." She couldn't keep a bit of excitement from creeping into her voice.

-------------D3S11------------------(C)

Cal was relieved Lindsey was not upset about him turning her down. The fact of the matter was that he wanted her, badly. He had never stopped being attracted to her, really. But doing it in the shower less than 24 hours after their intimacy in the very same spot had led to a meltdown was just too much of a mental hurdle to overcome. He was glad she had offered to see how they felt after brunch, he was pretty sure he knew exactly how he would feel.

The pair exited the shower and began drying off. Cal couldn't help but be half hard watching Lindsey's naked body. She noted it and smiled at him.

"I promise, I'm taking it as a compliment. Remember my commitment to gender equality? This area is not exactly dry, and it's not because of the shower," Lindsey said, gesturing between her legs.

Cal laughed. "Thank you, I like that I have that effect on you." He also like liked Lindsey, she had a practicality to her he found incredibly attractive.

"Yay, made it through the weekend with one pair of clean underwear to wear home," Lindsey commented as she put on a pair of white bikini-cut panties.

"Probably best you saved that pair, not sure a pair of white underwear would do very well around here," Cal said with a scoff as he got dressed in shorts and a t-shirt.

"Yeah, good point. And score, I forgot this was at the bottom of my bag," Lindsey said, holding up a sleeveless navy blue tennis style dress. She slipped it on and it fell to mid-thigh. "Uh, do I need a bra with this?"

"I think you'll be ok," Cal said. It was not lost on him that implicit in Lindsey's question was an invitation to look at her boobs. Things were starting to feel couplish between them. He was a fan.

"Alright, well then come on, handsome, let's eat!"

"Yes, I'm so hungry. You look really cute too, but I promise that if I have to throw you in a mud pit to confirm we won, then I will," Cal joked.

"Glad you learned your lesson," Lindsey said, laughing.

They exited the main lodge and began the short walk to the cabin where Pierre and Laurie lived, at least part time. Cal wasn't actually sure if it was their full time residence or sort of a temporary home while camp was in session. He subtly extended his elbow out to the side, inviting Lindsey to grab on. She eagerly hooked her arm into his and looked at him with an adoring expression.

"I like this," Cal said. It felt like an overly simple statement, but it was how he felt and he was long past playing games by this point.

"I could most certainly get used to this," Lindsey said and leaned into his side.

They walked arm in arm to the organizers' cabin and confidently strode up the steps, then knocked on the door.

"Congratulations and welcome!" Laurie said when she opened the door. She guided them to a spacious dining room where a dozen seats were set up. Six people were already seated and applauded their entrance. Cal recognized Gloria and her law partners from the previous evening's video.

"Lindsey and Cal, sit! You are the guests of honor!" called Pierre. He hauled in the first platter of food which held toast, bagels, and English muffins and set it at one end of the large table. Laurie was right behind with a serving tray of bacon, sausages, and hashbrowns.

"It's tradition that the winners serve themselves first," Gloria said. "Please, help yourselves."

Cal nodded Lindsey forward, good manners dictating he let his female partner have first dibs. Lindsey rolled her eyes at his chivalry but grabbed a plate and began filling it. Pierre brought in a third tray, this one piled high with eggs, and fresh fruit. There was practically every breakfast food imaginable available to them.

The guests followed Cal and Lindsey and made plates, with Laurie and Pierre going last. Once everyone was seated around the table with their food, Laurie tapped her glass before raising it in a toast.

"We do our best not to play favorites here at AARC, but I have enjoyed watching you two compete this week in a special way," Laurie said. "It's a little bit of a crapshoot when we match up two people who don't know each other but I had a feeling you two would be a good fit."

"Laurie does like playing match maker," Pierre laughed. "You two were truly impressive though. You overcame so much adversity to win this weekend. You also won challenges in many different ways, some with smarts, some with determination, some a mixture thereof. It's uncommon to see and you have our utmost respect."

"Thanks, I think maybe it was sort of a right place, right time, right person thing," Lindsey said, glancing at Cal.

"Yeah I think that's probably fair. We had a misstep or two, but ultimately we made a great team," Cal said.

"Misstep seems like an undersell," Gloria cackled. "Im glad you two figured it out though."

"Thanks for the little inspirational video," Lindsey said. "It helped me get out of my own head."

"Yeah, to be honest I'm not sure we figure things out without your video," Cal admitted.

Gloria beamed, Cal could tell she was glad to have played a small part in helping them.

Cal and Lindsey ate voraciously, receiving some good natured, albeit understanding, ribbing from the other diners. The atmosphere was fun and happy, with many stories about past exploits and missteps from the many years Gloria and her friends had competed. Pierre and Laurie chipped in with some amusing anecdotes.

Once the meal was done, Pierre and Laurie insisted it was their responsibility to handle clean up, despite everyone else's protests. Cal and Lindsey said goodbye to Gloria and her companions and they departed back to their lodge.

"Please sit," Laurie requested, returning from depositing the last of the plates in the kitchen. Cal and Lindsey retook their seats at the dining room table. Pierre appeared a moment later and joined them.

"Ok, first things first, your prize," Laurie said. "You're welcome to bring as many or as few guests as you like for your week in the guest lodge. Just give us a rough idea of the count a week in advance so we can stock it appropriately. It has five bedrooms, but with couches it could probably sleep 15 comfortably. We've had people use it for all kinds of stuff - anniversaries, bachelor parties, you name it. We're happy to supply food and beverages within reason as well, just let us know what you would like.

"We'll email you both a schedule with open dates and it will be up to you two to figure out what you want to take. The summer dates typically fill up the fastest, and right now all our dates for this summer are full. You're welcome to pick a date next summer or you can pick a week in the fall or even winter."

"So I guess you live here year round?" Lindsey asked.

"We sure do, this camp has very much become our livelihood," Pierre answered. "We typically take time off during the winter to visit family, but aside from that we run competitions practically all year round, which means the guest lodge is used basically year round as well. As you've likely realized, we also grow some crops we sell to local businesses."

"We do other stuff besides just the competitions too," Laurie added. "Corporate team building events, retreats, those kinds of things. We do that during the week since weekends tend to be more for the traditional competitions. You kind of put it all together and it mostly works. Although we'll be honest, the contributions from folks like Gloria is kind of what allows us to be so generous with stocking the guest house and some of our more outlandish obstacles."

"Yeah, let me tell you, 20,000 gallons of beet juice isn't cheap, even with a bulk discount," Pierre chuckled.

"I can imagine," Cal said. "Well for what it's worth, I'm damned glad I decided to pull the trigger on signing up. I had an amazing time for the most part and I think it's fair to say I made a friend." He glanced over at Lindsey, she nodded and smiled back at him.

"Just a friend?" Laurie asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Down girl, down," Pierre playfully swatted at Laurie. "These poor kids have only known each other for not even 48 hours, give them a break. Sorry, she watches too much Love Island." He winked at Cal and Lindsey. Cal glanced over at Lindsey and saw she was smiling awkwardly as well as blushing slightly. He couldn't help but laugh.

"I think we'll certainly stay in touch. I'm sure you both certainly realize that being teammates here is a pretty intense bonding experience," Cal said with a half smile on his face.

"Indeed, that's part of what we think makes our experiences special. Even people who have known each other for decades, married couples, lifelong friends - they tend to find out something new about themselves here," Pierre said.

"Well said, honey," Laurie said, giving her husband a smile. "Ok, we promise not to go too timeshare salespeople on you, but we do want to take a few minutes to let you know about our offerings. Repeat customers are important to us, and we would truly love to have you back. Honestly we say that to everybody, but in the case of you two, I truly, truly mean it. You were both fierce, intelligent competitors. I think you sort of learned this during the cooking challenge yesterday. We love having people here who push boundaries and show us new ways to solve our challenges, so we would love to have you back.

"Alright, so what you did this weekend is what we refer to as our standard program. The challenges require participants to have a combination of strategy, physical fitness, and problem solving skills. Overall it's our most popular offering. We think it's kind of unique because it mixes a lot of the elements of traditional physical competitions with more thoughtful puzzle-solving type games. Our goal is for teams to have to demonstrate both brains and brawn as you both have done.

"We do also offer some more traditional physical fitness competitions if that's your thing, kind of similar to like a Warrior Dash or Tough Mudder. Honestly those are not our most popular offerings because most people can find similar competitions closer to home without having to travel to our little enclave in the Tennessee mountains. We typically only run four to six of those a year depending on demand."

"Right then, we also run a few of what we call, ahem, lifestyle competitions," Laurie said, looking awkward. "I'll presume you all noticed that our challenges can involve getting a bit dirty. We're not naive. We know that some people like that. So we also do a few competitions a year where it's essentially impossible to complete the challenge without getting filthy. Depending on demand it's typically six to eight weekends a year."

"I think I remember you saying four teams of two is the minimum number of teams for a competition, right?" Cal asked. "What is typical?"

"Pairs is most common, although we typically aim for 5 or 6 teams. We do other team sizes too. Quartets are pretty common. Some larger stuff too with teams of six, more than that and it can get sort of unwieldy," Pierre explained.

"We try to work with people who want to participate on timing and everything, rather than just saying here's the schedule," Laurie added.

"Neat, well I think we'll strongly consider participating again. Are all the slots for the rest of this year filled up?" Cal asked. He glanced over at Lindsey. She was smiling, he could tell she was definitely happy the pronoun he had chosen was 'we' rather than 'I'.

"We'll send you a schedule for the rest of the year, although we typically encourage teams not to participate in another competition until they have taken advantage of a week in the guest lodge," Pierre said. "We find it can be quite motivating." He and Laurie both laughed. Cal imagined a week at the palatial guest lodge would double his desire to come back and compete.

"Ok one final thing for y'all before we bid you farewell. This is a photo compilation of some of your best moments this weekend in pictures. You can check them out on this tablet, and then we have thumbdrives for each of you with the pictures on them. I want to reassure you none of these pictures are in the cloud, all local devices we would never share. We know sometimes things can get a bit borderline here, so we never allow the photos we take to be saved to the cloud. Strict privacy," Laurie said.

Cal picked up the tablet and Lindsey leaned into him so she could see and they began scrolling through the pictures. The pictures highlighted all their best moments from the weekend, which meant several were quite revealing and featured them in various messy states. Cal couldn't help but smile as they flipped through, there were so many good memories from the weekend. Laurie had thoughtfully left out any pictures from yesterday afternoon. The final photo was of the pair of them side by side after the final challenge where they had won the competition. Remembering the utter elation they felt brought a warm fuzzy to Cal's chest. Seeing Lindsey wearing nothing but her underwear in picture form also aroused him slightly. He checked Lindsey's reaction, she was chewing her lip as if contemplating something, then looked at him and smiled, a decision apparently made.

"Thanks for these," Lindsey said to Laurie and Pierre while picking up the thumbdrives. "It will help us remember a really great time."

"Our pleasure, again you both were great competitors and we hope to hear from you again," Pierre said. The four rose and exchanged handshakes.

Cal and Lindsey exited the cabin into bright sunshine, it was looking like a beautiful day.

"I hope we get this lucky with weather the week of our prize vacation thing," Cal said.

"Yeah, this is wonderful. Shoot, I just realized, I left my shorts from this morning in the mess hall since I never bothered to put them on after the bike leg. I'm going to grab those. Meet you back at the lodge?"

"I can walk with you," Cal offered.

"That's ok, uh TMI I guess, but I also need to use the bathroom," Lindsey said.

Cal realized she would probably not like to have him waiting on her while she did her business and began a leisurely walk back to the lodge.

-------------D3S12------------------(L)

Lindsey had forgotten her shorts earlier, but she had been lying about the bathroom. She needed an excuse to talk to Laurie alone for a few minutes. Laurie had been very understanding and accepting of her request. She was nervous as she climbed the stairs of the lodge to meet Cal, but also excited.

Cal eyed the bundle she was carrying as she entered their room.
"What's all that?" he asked.

"What does it look like?" Lindsey countered.

"Uh, plastic sheeting? What's in the bag?"

"Food," Lindsey answered. She could feel herself starting to blush. "I was thinking maybe we could try out your little kink."

Cal looked unsure. "We don't have to, I'm interested in you either way."

"I know. I want to try it. I have felt like little urges all weekend when we got messy for the game. I want to see what it's like to get dirty intentionally, I, uh, I kind of think it will turn me on. I'm already a little turned on thinking about it."

"I'm not going to say 'no' to that," Cal grinned.

Lindsey smiled. She felt relieved and excited. She was pretty sure Cal would like this surprise but it had been a bit of a risk.

They pulled the mattress off the lower bunk onto the floor and covered it with the plastic sheet. They taped the edges to furniture or the walls so any 'runoff' would stay on the plastic. Cal pulled food items out of the bag and lined them up on the table next to the mattress.

"How do you want to do this?" Cal asked. "We could just alternate picking items or we could play a silly game like rocks, paper, scissors."

"Oh I guess I just sort of assumed you would mess me up," Lindsey said. "Do you want me to mess you up too?"

"I guess I don't really know, I've never actually done this before. The kink for me has always been about girls getting dirty."

"Alright well then how about you just do me and we'll see where we're at?" Lindsey suggested.

"I'm looking forward to this," Cal admitted.

"Is it ok if we just keep it below the neck for today?" Lindsey asked. "I have a few hours until I have to be at the airport but I'm not sure I want to be trying to wash a huge mess out of my hair."

"Totally fine," Cal said and Lindsey put her hair up in a bun.

Lindsey smiled and stripped off her dress, putting it on the top bunk where it had no chance of getting dirty, and sat down on the plastic covered mattress.
"Do you want to take those off?" Cal gestured towards her underwear. "Last pair and all that."

"No, I think I want to start with them on, I think part of why I was turned on yesterday was knowing I was going something sort of taboo by ruining my clothes," Lindsey explained. "I'll just go home commando."

"Dirty girl," Cal grinned.

"Figuratively, want to make it literally?" Lindsey asks, giving Cal her best sexy look.

-------------D3S13------------------(C)

"I do. Green if you want me to keep going, yellow slow down, red for stop," Cal instructed Lindsey. She nodded eagerly.

Cal felt like he should pinch himself to make sure he was not in a dream. He had some inkling Lindsey would probably want to fool around a little after brunch, since they had basically agreed to that before the meal. Not in his wildest imagination had he imagined her coming through the door and proposing a wet and messy session. He pulled off his clothes and tossed them on the bed next to Lindsey's dress.

Lindsey eyed his cock with desire in her eyes.

"I'm sorry I called you small, you know you're not right?" Lindsey asked.

"I do, but perhaps you should also be punished?" Cal asked in a teasing voice and cocked his eyebrow at Lindsey.

"Yes, I do think that would be best," Lindsey grinned, understanding what he meant.

Cal examined his choices. The bottle of olive oil seemed like a good place to start. He unscrewed the top and gave Lindsey one last questioning glance.

"Green," Lindsey said and sat back resting on her hands, presenting her chest. Cal poured a drizzle across her chest just above her breasts. Lindsey gasped then giggled a little. She looked down as the line of oil slowly moved downwards in tiny steams as gravity took effect. Some ran over her breasts and a lot went down the valley between them.

Lindsey sat up straight and brought her hands to her breasts rubbing in the oil. She shuddered slightly, obviously enjoying the sensation.

"It's kind of slimy, but in like a fun way," Lindsey said.

"I think I read somewhere it's good for your skin," Cal said. "Still green?"
"Oh yeah, this is fun," Lindsey answered. Cal stepped behind Lindsey and poured aggressively across her shoulder blades. This oil moved more quickly down her back since he had poured more on her. It worked its way down her back, coating most of it.

Lindsey shivered. "It's such a weird sensation moving down my back, almost like it's teasing me by going so slow," she said. "Still green, this is great foreplay, I'm getting more than a little turned on."

Cal circled back around so he was standing in front of Lindsey. She looked up at him and sat back on her hands again so her chest was angled, then gave her boobs a slight, inviting shake.

"You look hot," Cal said, honestly.

"Is it weird to say I feel sexy?" Lindsey asked.

"Heck no, you are. I love how it makes your skin glisten."

"Green," Lindsey said self-confidently.

Cal poured a half the remaining bottle over her breasts. This time it didn't dribble down her chest, it raced across her already oiled breasts and only slowed slightly when it reached the dry skin of her stomach. The cloth of Lindsey's panties was the only thing to stem the tide. The fabric darkened and began to become transparent.

"Holy fuck. Green!" Lindsey said excitedly as she watched and felt the progression. Emboldened, Cal poured oil directly onto the front of Lindsey's panties. The oil quickly soaked her underwear, making the white cloth translucent. Cal admired the shape of Lindsey's clean shaven mound and lips. He was fully hard by that point.

Lindsey's left hand dropped to her sex while her right cupped a breast. It was obvious she was extremely turned on.

"Pull out your waistband," Cal instructed. Lindsey did so and he poured the remainder of the bottle of oil directly into her panties. Lindsey groaned with arousal as the oil coated her, then pulled her underwear tight to emphasize the sensations.

"This feels so good, I'm soI don't know, slimy? Oily? Dirty? I'm so turned on," Lindsey said, short of breath.

"As you can tell, so am I, you're quite a sight," Cal observed.

"Damnit, that's hot, I really want you, do you want to join me in this mess?" Lindsey asked.

"I do, but I'm going to try to embrace delayed gratification, because you are not nearly dirty enough," Cal said. "Take care of business yourself for the time being."

With a groan Lindsey shoved one hand into her underwear and began working her clit. She quickly worked herself towards an orgasm as best Cal could tell, based on her panting, frantic hand movements and moaning.

It took about everything Cal had in terms of willpower to not dive on top of Lindsey and get in on the action, but he managed to resist. He examined his options to splosh Lindsey with next and settled on a large tub of plain yogurt. He paid close attention to the sounds Lindsey, who now had her eyes closed, was making as she approached climax. When he sensed she was right on the brink he upended the container and it splattered all over her boobs, with some falling lower where her hand was in action. His timing was perfect, Lindsey's body trembled as she came and her eyes flew open as she squealed in pleasure.

"Damn, that was hot!" Cal exclaimed.

Lindsey flopped on her back and her chest heaved as she caught her breath. "Oh my gosh, that was intense. Wow. Like perfect timing hitting me with this yogurt right as I was about to cum, made it so good."

She propped herself up on her elbows and examined the mess that was her torso. One hand began to idly spread the yogurt around. It took on a slimier consistency as it mixed more with the oil and got spread out.

"The getting dirty part of this really gets me going, but the tactile sensations are almost better. I didn't realize that part would be such a turn on," Lindsey said. "Anyways, you gave me a really great orgasm, I want to give you one."

"I feel like I could explode right now, doing this with you and seeing how much it turns you on has me right on the edge," Cal admitted.

"Think you have two rounds in you?" Lindsey asked.

"Probably," Cal said hopefully.

Smiling, Lindsey got on her knees and reached for Cal's cock, pulling him until he stood over her. She eagerly leaned forward and took his dick in her mouth. Cal had not been lying about how turned on he was by this scene. On top of that Lindsey definitely knew what she was doing. He lasted an embarrassingly short amount of time before he had to tap Lindsey on the shoulder to warn her he was close.

She looked up at him with a devilish smile, letting his cock free of her mouth. She grabbed it with both slimy hands and began jerking him off. "One more thing to mess me up with, give it to me," Lindsey panted eagerly. Cal exploded all over her boobs, adding to the mess.

Lindsey played with the various substances more while Cal leaned against the bunk beds and caught his breath. "Your cum blends right in, it's just warmer," she observed with a slight giggle.

Cal chuckled. "Well you definitely achieved your goal of giving me an amazing orgasm, shit that was good," he said.

Lindsey grinned. She obviously liked having given her partner so much pleasure. "What shall we do while you recover?" she asked.

"The obvious answer would be to use up the rest of the stuff you brought and play with it," Cal said hopefully.

"Read my mind," Lindsey was still grinning. How turned on she was by all of this was almost as arousing to Cal as seeing her naked body covered in mess.

Cal picked some chocolate sauce as the next substance. This was a little bit of an escalation because unlike the oil and yogurt there was no doubt these would stain Lindsey's white underwear. He held up the bottle for Lindsey to see.

"Green light," she said eagerly and moved to her original sitting position.

"You know there are still some pretty clean parts of you," Cal said, eyeing Lindsey's legs. A little bit of the mess had worked its way onto her thighs while she'd been kneeling but they were mostly clean. Cal uncapped the bottle and began squirting a long line of the brown substance down Lindsey's right leg. When he was done Lindsey reached down and rubbed it into her leg like lotion, smearing brown sticky sauce everywhere. Cal grinned and started on her left leg. Lindsey repeated the process on that leg and Cal poured more on her right. When they were done Lindsey's legs were thoroughly coated in mess.

"Still good?" Cal asked, he had squirted a bit of the chocolate in his hand and was holding it over the front of Lindsey's panties.

"Fucking green! Touch me, ruin them," Lindsey said breathlessly. She was obviously getting turned on again.

Cal smushed the sticky substance into the white fabric over Lindsey's sex and rubbed it in, permanently staining the panties and stimulating Lindsey, who gasped with pleasure at the feeling and the sight.

He squeezed more into his hand and cupped one of Lindsey's boobs, adding the chocolate to the whitish mix from the yogurt and oil. Lindsey shuddered.

"Fuck it feels even better when it's someone else touching me," she said.

Cal squirted the last of the chocolate sauce directly onto Lindsey's other boob and leaned forward, licking it with his tongue. The combination of chocolate and yogurt was actually pretty tasty, but the way Lindsey's body shivered was even better. He felt himself starting to get hard again already.

He got up and examined the remaining food items.

"Why'd you stop?" Lindsey whined. "That felt so good."

"I could tell, next time we're going to cum together," Cal told her. She smiled at his answer, he could tell she liked that idea.

"Hmm, I think you deserve somewhere more comfortable to sit," he said, holding up some sort of fruit trifle. It took Lindsey a moment to figure out what he meant, but she grinned when she did and got up on her knees. Cal positioned the trifle beneath her and guided her into a sitting position so that her previously clean ass sank into the gooey layers of dessert. Lindsey wriggled her bottom around, arms out to the sides for balance.

"This feels weird, but in a really good way," she said. "Stuff is getting pushed around in all sorts of fun places. You have to try it."

"Do you want to do your back first? Full coverage?" Cal asked. He noticed that it was still clean aside from the small amount of oil he'd poured on it at the start

"I kind of like the idea of being fully covered, green. Although I think we're almost out of the stuff I brought."

She was right, the last thing they had to use up was some strawberry syrup. He uncapped the bottle bottle and began pouring over her back, using his other hand rub in the sticky red substance.

"This is nice, like a back rub," Lindsey giggled.

"Not that you don't have a lovely back, but saving the least sexy part of you for last was perhaps the wrong order," Cal said with a slight laugh.

"Lesson learned for next time," Lindsey said. Although her tone was joking, the significance of her suggesting there would be a next time was not lost on him. He liked that idea a lot.

"All done," Cal announced after a minute.

"I feel like I should get a picture or something, record this for posterity," Lindsey said.

Cal stood up and wiped his hands on one of the old towels they used for clean up, then grabbed Lindsey's phone and held it up.

"Fuck it, green. You know how to turn off cloud backup so it's just stored on the device right?" Lindsey asked.

Cal nodded that he did and made the appropriate settings changes. Lindsey posed facing away from arms stretched above her theatrically. He snapped the photo.

"You look pretty hot," he told Lindsey as he showed her the photo.

"The artist did a great job covering the canvas," Lindsey joked. "Let's do one from the front."

She stood in the same pose as yesterday, smiling with one finger held aloft for victory. Then she did one with hands on her hips and a sultry look on her face. She really did look hot. Cal was hard again.

"Looks like you're ready for round two," Lindsey said, noticing his erection.

"Hard not to with this view," he said.

"Fuck you turn me on," Lindsey said. Cal was glad it was a two way street.

Lindsey knelt and began gathering some of the mess that had fallen off her into the tray the trifle had been on with the remnants of the dessert. Once she was satisfied with her creation she motioned Cal over. It was his turn to get a little dirty, he realized. He positioned himself and sat down on the cake. He immediately understood what Lindsey had meant, it was a weird sensation but good. She was kneeling next to him watching raptly didn't hurt.

"See what I mean?" she asked.

"I do, it's fun. Care to join me?" Cal asked. His dick was sticking straight up from his seated position, so the implication was obvious.

"I thought you'd never ask," she grinned.

Lindsey crawled over until she could squat above his crotch. She pulled her panties to the side and slowly slid down, penetrating herself on Cal's shaft. The feeling was incredible.

The position wasn't ideal for actual sex, but it was perfect for Lindsey to grind her hips and tease them both. They were also face to face with Lindsey on Cal's lap. It was the perfect position to make out and they took advantage. Lindsey was not shy about rubbing her slimy hands all over Cal's back and he realized part of the appeal for her was getting him as dirty as she was. In the entwined position they were in that didn't take long.

"Ok enough of this, I want the real thing," Lindsey said after a few minutes of making out and grinding.

"I'm not sure I'll be last very long if we do anything more intense than just the grinding," Cal warned.

"Oh I'm counting on that, why do you think I was getting myself worked up, I'm going to cum so fast," Lindsey said and got on her hands and knees. "Doggy ok? I think if you can hit my g-spot I might be able to add to the mess.

"Dirty girl. Figuratively and literally now," Cal joked and positioned himself behind Lindsey. He pulled her panties aside again and re-inserted himself into her wet pussy. The feeling was amazing. He began thrusting eagerly. Lindsey met his thrusts with equal enthusiasm.

Cal was a little disappointed how quickly he found himself on the precipice of an orgasm, but it was some of the best sex he had ever had. Based on Lindsey's moans she was right there with him, so he did not try to hold back and kept going. Just as he was about to climax, Lindsey threw her head back and cried out and her whole body trembled as she came. Preston felt liquid squirt around his cock and upper legs as Lindsey squirted with her orgasm. It was more than enough to put him over the edge and he exploded inside her. The pair collapsed onto the messy mattress.

"That was some of the best sex I've ever had and the actual sex part I don't think lasted more than five minutes," Lindsey said.

"That was fucking incredible, Lindsey. Same. Some of the best I've ever had," Cal agreed. He felt punch drunk. He cuddled up to Lindsey and held her, their slimy bodies pressed together.

"One more thing for next time, more slimy, less sticky. I wish we could cuddle longer but if this syrup dries it's going to be a nightmare to get off. We'd better go shower," Lindsey said after a few minutes.

-------------D3S14------------------(L)

"I hope you're serious when you refer to there being a next time," Cal said as he got to his feet and offered Lindsey a hand.

"How could I not want a next time after that? Lindsey asked, smiling up at Cal and taking his proffered hand. She had figured Cal was probably decent in bed after their encounter yesterday, but on top of opening a new sexual frontier with the wet and messy stuff, he was also a skilled lover. Lindsey had a good feeling that even normal sex with him would be fantastic.

"Guess you get one more partially clothed shower," Cal joked as he turned the water on.

"It is kind of different this time though, because I planned to get dirty. It feels different in a strange way. The intentional choice, knowing I was going to ruin my white underwear. I felt like a bad girl, it really turned me on," Lindsey said, trying to explain her thinking.

"I get what you mean, it's doing something you're not supposed to. Being bad. I was a very willing participant if you didn't notice," Cal said.

"And I thank you for that," Lindsey said, stepping into the spray of one of the showerheads. The mess began slowly washing off her body. She pulled off her underwear and held them under the shower for a moment before tossing them to the side. They were stained beyond saving.

"Unlike this morning when I was just trying to get your attention, I may legitimately need your help with my back now," Lindsey said.

"Oh you already had my attention, it just wasn't the right time. But yes happy to help you out. And unlike this morning I may actually need your help on mine." Cal stepped out from under his showerhead and began to work on Lindsey's back.

"Sorry about that, you're right it was better to wait until we had eaten," Lindsey said, slightly embarrassed at her somewhat clumsy attempt earlier.

"Nothing to apologize for. Besides, I would say it worked out rather amazingly," Cal said. Lindsey certainly agreed with that. They helped each other wash all the mess they had made of each other off and reluctantly climbed from the shower, both knowing the end of their time together was fast approaching. Lindsey wrung out her underwear.

"Here, you can keep this as a trophy," she said, offering Cal the stained garment.

"I'll treasure them forever." His tone was joking but she thought she detected an underlying hint of seriousness. She hoped she did anyway. She was never going to forget this weekend and was hopeful there would be more like it in their future. They got dressed and carefully disposed of the plastic sheeting in a dumpster. They went back to the room and did one last check before leaving that everything was cleaned up and they weren't forgetting anything.

Lindsey shouldered her bag and took one last look before closing the door. Cal put his arm around her shoulders and she put hers around his waist.

"I never imagined what would happen the first time we opened the door to this room," Cal said.

"Me either, what a ride," Lindsey said.

"Alright, let's go, you have a plane to catch and if we stay here being nostalgic you'll miss it," Cal said, breaking the reverie.

The pair walked slowly up the parking lot and put their bags in their respective vehicles. Lindsey met Cal at his car and they exchanged a goodbye hug and kiss. As she walked to her car Lindsey could feel Cal's eyes on her back so she flipped up the back of her dress to reveal she had not worn any underwear and shook her ass at him. She thought that was an apt final image of their weekend to leave him with.

--------------------Epilogue-----------------(L)

Lindsey had been a little bit worried that their dalliance before leaving camp might put her at risk of missing her evening flight back to Chicago, but the drive to Knoxville had been uneventful and she made it in plenty of time. She even had time for a quick pit stop.

She pulled out her phone to text Cal once she had returned her rental car and gone through security.

'I wimped out and bought new underwear before I got to the airport. At my gate now' she tapped out and sent.

His reply came back momentarily: 'Wuss. Screenshot or it didn't happen'

'They aren't sexy, just boring department store underwear' she replied.

'It's the wearer that determines the appeal, not the style. You can make anything look sexy' was Cal's reply. Lindsey grinned at his reply. Cal was already getting a pretty good sense at how to push her buttons. She decided he deserved a reward.

The Knoxville airport was small and not especially busy despite it being Sunday afternoon. It was easy to find a seat out of the way at an unused gate. She sat down, flipped on her phones camera and spread her legs. The photo she took up her own skirt really didn't show much, the skin of her things and the front panel of the red panties she had purchased. She sent the picture to Cal.

'As I said, it's really all about the wearer, very sexy. Love the color' was Cal's reply.

Lindsey smiled again. She really did like Cal. She glanced around to verify nobody was looking her way and quickly pulled her underwear down to her ankles. She spread her legs and snapped another photo up her dress. This one showed a lot more. Before her courage wanted she sent it to Cal.

She quickly pulled her panties back into place while she waited for Cal's reply. When it came in she couldn't help but shiver with excitement.

'Lindsey, I cannot WAIT to see you again.'

The End.
Labeled male+female
Comments:
BlueGriffin:
Wednesday
  Report
Wow. Long read is right, but a very fun and heartfelt tale with splatters of mess throughout it. Well worth the effort and thank you for such a wonderful story.
canairs90s's blog & storiesFollow storyAll stories
Share this on TwitterShare this on FacebookShare this on Reddit


Design & Code ©1998-2025 Loverbuns, LLC 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement Epoch Billing Support Log In