Psychological Control

Chapter 49

The first tribal council after the merger saw Mario eliminated.

As Mario's torch was extinguished, his expression didn't waver, clearly not surprised by the outcome. He had told me on the way to Tribal Council that he knew the outcome. He would walk away from this meeting. He ended up being the first juror on the jury.

Before he left, he gave Austin and I a cheering gesture. And Mario's elimination gave the three tribes a point of balance, which meant the situation became more uncertain. If I tried hard enough at this point, there would be a great possibility of pulling one of the powers or wisdom to our side. But I didn't want to.

I couldn't eliminate Dillon for the moment because of that gentleman's pact. That means I can't pull the Wisdom tribe against the Power tribe right away. Moreover, the Wisdom tribe has a woman like Kathy who is very clear in her analysis of the situation, and it would be impractical to form a solid alliance with them today.

On the other hand, if the Power Tribe were to take on the Wisdom Tribe, then I would easily put Ryder in the middle of a fight. Then I would easily put Ryder in danger and expose the possibility of him having a hidden idol early. And the participants in the Power Tribe are even more of a threat at the Challenge. Not to mention Dillon, who I was most worried about.

So what I would prefer is to lend someone else a hand to clear the room for me first, and then eventually organise a new alliance separately.

When the Beauty Tribe side is strong, everyone treats us as enemies. But what if there are only two of us left, one? Then we will become a stray vote. We will become the meat and potatoes that the Power Tribe and the Wisdom Tribe will fight over. And with Austin gone, the only ally Anna trusts most is me, and there's no need to trust her betrayal any time soon.

While it's true that making myself a stray vote carries risk, opportunity always comes with risk. And I wasn't going to just let myself be a stray ticket to be fought over; I wanted to perform some Jedi in front of the screen. Nothing in Survivor history is more memorable than a brilliant game of brains.

Oh sure, the shark hunt doesn't count. This unexpected event might be considered an adventure from God? Or maybe an eye-popping gift.

So, the next person to go is, Austin.

"Second individual immunity contest, start!" With a command from Jeff, everyone sprang into action.

We were blindfolded and placed in a huge maze made by hand. And we needed to collect five necklaces representing the elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth in the maze and take them to the centre of the maze. The first person to take all the necklaces and stand in front of their name tag in the centre of the maze won.

To be honest, both me and the original Brian had a huge downside. We are both wayfarers. The combination of the two didn't make us negative-negative. So this time, all my hopes were on Ryder.

The sooner we can get our agreement with Dillon nullified, the better, even if I still don't plan to unite with the others and vote Dillon out this time. But it was good to be without that precondition of not being allowed to vote him out.

"Red's making the most progress! He's got his first fire and is walking through the maze like he has a map in front of him! He's not confused about the directions at all...and on the other side, Dillon is catching up as he wanders through the area of water and is about to approach his target." Jeff's commentary was loud enough for all nine of us in the entire maze to hear.

I was really being a bit negative, but I couldn't just stand around in circles and look like I was giving up too easily. So I just walked aimlessly feeling my way around the walls. Then I felt myself all of a sudden, hitting a wall of hot, hard flesh.