March 29, 2013, 1:50 p.m.
The Mole: The Mountain Track Game
E - Words: 3,717 - Last Updated: Mar 29, 2013 Story: Complete - Chapters: 17/17 - Created: Dec 11, 2012 - Updated: Mar 29, 2013 390 0 2 0 0
"Just like Harry's mother, another Evans is gone. Sam failed to correctly guess the identity of the mole so he became the mole's third victim, leaving the game with seven players." Will was standing on a mountain top, bundled warmly. "Some suspected Sam when he got his question wrong but in the end the neutralization given to him by the mole did its job and he was eliminated. The remaining players soon found themselves on the way to the Swiss Alps, still trying to answer that question. Who is the mole?
"Ten strangers, working together to reach a prize total of one million dollars. But among them is a saboteur, a traitor, a double agent working for us to try and hinder the other players from banking the money. That person is the mole. Their task is simple. To win the money they must answer one question. Who is the mole?
"Is it Santana Lopez?
"Finn Hudson?
"Quinn Fabray?
"Kurt Hummel?
"Mercedes Jones?
"Noah Puckerman?
"Or Blaine Anderson?"
The player profiles flashed across the camera with Sam's having been removed. The opening credits continued to roll as the the camera panned to the group standing at the base of the mountain range that cut a path through a forest.
"Welcome to Switzerland players," Will greeted. "I hope you all had a good rest on the plane because you still have a long way to go. I'll explain in a minute. First I'd like to hear some of your thoughts about the elimination of Sam last night."
"After he got that question wrong yesterday, he climbed my suspect list," Santana said. "Everybody knew the answer to that question and then when he didn't volunteer to swing, that just added to my suspicions. I ended up splitting my answers between him and two other people."
Puck gave a short nod. "Sam did seem suspicious after that and given what Kurt said at breakfast, he could have very well neutralized himself to throw us off his trail."
"Blaine could have exemplified himself for the same reason though," Santana pointed out.
Puck shook his head. "I don't think it's Blaine. I don't think it's you. I don't think it's Finn. And I know it's not me."
"Interesting Puck," Will said. "Any reason why all the people you suspect the least are all those who were in the hang group yesterday?" Puck looked around at everyone, clearly hesitant on sharing his observations, not wanting to grant anyone an open door to what he thought was the right path.
"I'd really rather keep that to myself if you don't mind," he said finally. Kurt, Blaine, and Mercedes all narrowed their eyes at him.
I think I have my next target, thought the mole.
"I think I know what you're thinking," Kurt said. "The mole would be able to do more damage from answering a question than from hanging. It would have been more beneficial for them but I honestly don't think there's any point in counting anyone out yet. For me, you're all suspects and unless you get eliminated, I'm keeping it that way."
It was quiet for a moment before Santana quipped, "Does that mean you suspect the sexy hobbit?" She nodded in Blaine's direction. The man in question blushed slightly and stared down at the ground.
"I'm sure Blaine suspects me too," Kurt said.
Finn seemed to remember something. "No he doesn't dude. He said so a few days ago, remember?"
Kurt frowned. "Don't call me dude Finn. And just because he thought that a few days ago doesn't mean he thinks that now. Just like I highly doubt the majority of you still suspect me the least. Opinions change. Especially when our prime suspect is eliminated."
"Mine hasn't been yet," Blaine commented. Kurt nodded.
"Neither has mine," he agreed.
Oh this conversation is delicious, thought the mole.
"I don't think any of us had listed Rachel, Brittany, or Sam as our prime suspects," Quinn pitched in.
Blaine shook his head. "Believe it or not, Brittany was my number two suspect. I know that sounds odd but I had my reasons."
"Sam and Kurt both climbed my list after the questions yesterday," Santana said. "But Kurt dropped again when he made the decision to swing without batting an eye about it."
Kurt smiled a bit. "I wanted to make up for gettin such an easy question wrong," he explained. "The pressure got to me and I felt really bad."
"Well, you made up for it," Santana noted.
Will clapped his hands together then. "All right guys, that's enough discussion for now. Time to move onto the next game. I need you guys to nominate one person who is lazy."
"I nominate myself," Finn said immediately. "I can be a pretty lazy person."
Will looked at the others. "Any objections?" No one said anything. "Okay, Finn stand beside me. The rest of you, I have a hat here with all your names in it. I'll ask each of you to come forward and draw a name. Whoever you select is your partner for this test. You get who you get. No changing partners. Quinn?" He offered the hat to her and she drew a name from it.
"Santana," she read after she had unfolded the paper. Will nodded and offered the hat to Mercedes. The dark-skinned girl drew a name from it.
"Puck," she read off. Instead of offering the hat to Blaine or Kurt, will set it aside as there really wasn't any point when they were the last two left.
"That means Kurt and Blaine, you two will be partners," Will said. The two of them grinned at each other.
"Okay, hold up," Santana said. "How is it every time it's a two person task, porcelain and the hobbit always end up together? Pretty sure the rest of us want a chance to gather more information on the two of them as well."
It was quiet for a moment before Will shook his head. "I'm sorry Santana, all partnerships are final." Santana rolled her eyes. "Okay, now that you have your partners, I can fill you in on what you are doing. I have here, three maps. One is an easy straight-forward path, one is a medium difficulty path, and one is hard and complicated to follow. You won't know which one you have until you open it. Quinn and Santana, you get first pick."
The two of them conversed for a moment.
"We'll take the one in the middle," Quinn said and Will handed her the middle map.
"Puck and Mercedes?"
"Left," Puck said. Will handed him the left map and gave Kurt and Blaine the right one.
If this doesn't work out in my favor, I might have to forego sabotage this game. Can't sabotage everything. But if it does, I have to make sure to get the end result I want, thought the mole.
"Okay, so somewhere in this forest mountain or mountain forest is the cabin we will be staying in for the night. The maps each show one route to it. Your test is to get there with your maps. You have until seven tonight. That gives you six hours. Just one team has to arrive by seven. If one team does, I'll give you ten thousand dollars. If two teams arrive by seven, I'll give you twenty thousand dollars. If all three teams arrive by seven, I'll give you thirty thousand dollars. For every team that arrives after seven, I will take away five thousand dollars. Here's the thing, the cabin has only six rooms. One for me and one each for five of you. Whichever team arrives last will be spending the night on the mountain." There were collective gasps among the group. "Finn, you volunteered to be the lazy one so I'm going to take you directly to the cabin. Good luck."
Will nodded to the other six and he and Finn got into a car and were off down a winding road.
"Good luck everybody," Kurt said. They all parted ways, taking different routes into the mountain forest.
In the car, Will turned to Finn. "Okay Finn, I am going to give you an opportunity to earn an exemption for tomorrow night's execution." Finn raised his eyebrows in anticipation. "All you have to do, is try and hinder your teammates from making it to the cabin on time. If you successfully delay at least one team long enough, you'll get an exemption. However, if the team you're tryin to delay still makes it by seven, you earn nothing."
Finn looked thoughtful. "But that's betrayal, wouldn't it make me look like the mole?"
Will gave him a reassuring look. "If you're not the mole, making others think you are is a sure fire way to get them out of the game and keep you in the running for the money."
The tall man seemed to think about this for a moment. Will was right. The way to play the game was to get the others to suspect someone who was not the mole but that wasn't easy when you didn't know who was the mole, aside from yourself. Finn knew he wasn't the mole and he didn't know anyone who suspected him. Except perhaps Kurt. Getting the others to suspect him would be a good thing and he had yet to do anything that threw up suspicions in his direction. When he thought about it, he was probably the one person lowest on everyone's suspect list. That could be a bad omen in the long run. The most he'd done was refuse to have both legs casted. It was time to start really playing the game.
"All right, I'll do it," he said. Will nodded and the car continued its track through the wooded mountain to the cabin.
"Well, this will be a piece of cake," Santana said as she and Quinn studied their map. The straight forward trail marked on it told them they had the easy route. A nice big black X marked their destination and a smaller red one marked their started point. If you took a ruler, you could connect the two X's in a straight line. "He wasn't kidding when he said straight forward."
Quinn shouldered her backpack and started along the trail. "Let's get moving. Maps fail to show how long it takes to get from point A to point B and Will gave us six hours. We're on foot, so I'm thinking we're going to need it."
Santana nodded. "Six hours is probably enough time to get there on all routes, without detours and complications and failing to follow the map." Quinn smiled in agreement. The blonde was just happy she didn't have to take the more complicated course. The two feel into a comfortable silence as they started up the trail which was a slow mild incline.
Meanwhile, Puck and Mercedes had opened their map to find that they had the medium trail. There were bends along the way but not too many and what Mercedes thought looked like a loop around a tree, if there was a tree in that spot on the trail. The incline was of a moderate angle so it wasn't too much of a workout but it was prominant enough to notice that it was there.
"Try to keep up," Puck called over his shoulder as the two of them made their way onto the rocky trail, kicking through some brush that seemed to be hiding the path.
"Easy for you to say," Mercedes huffed. Puck looked back at her, slightly concerned.
"Okay, either you really are that out of shape, or you're the mole and tryin to slow us down by acting like it's difficult for you so we can cost the team five thousand dollars." Mercedes gave him a look.
"If I were the mole, I would have volunteered to be the lazy person and avoid doing this."
Puck was quiet for a moment. "How much you wanna bet Will's offering Finn an exemption?" Mercedes cringed at the thought.
"Nothing because it's probably true." Puck nodded and the two of them continued on their way.
With Quinn and Santana having the easy map and Puck and Mercedes getting the medium one, that left Kurt and Blaine with the complicated one. The map was marked with and overly windy trail that passed up and down steep inclines and really worked them up into a sweat. The two of them were at the base of a particularly steep part of the trail. Kurt turned the map around in his hands.
"This is so confusing," he said, furrowing his brow. Perspiration already coated his forehead and few strands of his perfectly coifed hair had shaken free of the hairspray. "It's either up or down and I am not climbing that," he went on, pointing at the steep incline. "It can't really expect us to. Maybe we're meant to go down that way," he added, pointing to another trail that lead off down the mountain and around a bend.
Blaine carefully slid his hand into Kurt's and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Hey, we can do this, all right?" Kurt looked at him, glasz orbs locking on hazel. God this man was beautiful. Blaine smiled softly at him and tugged on his hand, starting up the steep trail. Kurt folded the map and allowed his free arm to drop to his side as Blaine pulled him along. This was perfect, even if he was breaking a sweat climbing mountains.
"Climb every mountain," Kurt sang under his breath, causing Blaine to chuckle and oh that sound was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever heard.
At that moment, a phone started ringing and the two of them stopped. Kurt found it in his pocket. Why were they always randomly finding phone's on their person in this game? Looking at it for a moment as it continued to ring, Kurt handed it to Blaine.
"Hello?" Blaine answered, pressing the phone to his ear.
"Blaine, it's Finn," came the voice on the other end of the line. Blaine mouthed the name to Kurt who took the moment to sit on a rock protruding from the side of the trail and study the map.
"Hi Finn, what's up?" Blaine asked as Kurt traced the trail with his finger, making Blaine swallow because be could imagine that delicate pale finger tracing the contours of his chest. He shook his head off.
"Don't climb the mountain. That trail leads to a dead end cliff," came Finn's reply. Blaine narrowed his eyes.
"What is it?" Kurt asked softly, looking up. Blaine glanced up the incline and shook his head. "Bad trail?" Kurt guessed. Blaine shrugged as though saying, he didn't know but Finn was saying it was.
"Are you sure?" Blaine asked into the phone.
"Positive," Finn replied confidently. "If you go up there, you'll just have to retrace your steps and that could cut into your time." Blaine nodded and bit his lip.
"Thank you Finn," he said. Finn acknowledged the thank you and hung up the phone. Blaine pocketed it. "Finn said this trail leads up to a dead end cliff," he told Kurt.
Kurt stood up and raised an eyebrow. "Well then maybe we should take that trail that winds down through the mountain instead," he said simply. Blaine looked hesitant. He was still worrying his lip between his teeth and Kurt would be damned if it wasn't the hottest thing ever. Fuck he just wanted to kiss him.
"I don't know Kurt," Blaine finally said. "Finn's with Will. He might have been offered an exemption. Not to mention, he really has no idea where we are."
"So then how did he know we were on a mountain incline?" Kurt asked.
Blaine frowned. "Good question." He really had no answer for that but Finn climbed up his suspect list, no longer sitting pretty at the bottom. Only the mole would know what path each of them were on and where each of them were, right? So Finn climbed but he still wasn't Blaine's prime suspect.
"Can we please just take the chance and go that way?" Kurt asked, pointing to the bendy trail that cascaded down the mountain. Blaine has only to look into Kurt's pleading eyes before he was nodding assent.
"Okay, but if we go off, we're turning around and coming back this way. I'll carry you if I have to even."
Kurt blushed. "Deal." Blaine took his hand again and the two of them headed off down the winding path, reverting form their climb up the mountain.
Hours passed and the sun was just starting to set when Quinn and Santana found themselves standing in front of a cabin. Will was stood on the porch smiling at the two of them and the girls were both incredibly exhausted from their hike but otherwise fine.
"Congratulations Quinn and Santana! You are both the first to arrive and here by seven. Ten thousand dollars will be added to the pot," Will said brightly. The two girls slapped high fives and cheered. It was warm beds and the satisfaction of a job well done for them tonight. "Go on in and make yourselves comfortable while we await the others to arrive."
Quinn and Santana headed into the cabin and dropped onto the couch beside Finn who was staring into the fire.
"You made it!" Finn said with a grin.
"We did," Santana replied.
"We lucked out and got the easy route," Quinn added.
"I wonder which of the other two teams go the medium route and which got the hard one," Finn said, though he already knew which had which. They didn't need to know that though, most particularly because they didn't need to know yet that he had been offered an exemption.
The girls both shrugged, neither one of them really caring about which team had which route.
"We're almost there Mercedes," Puck said. "I can see the cabin and Will. Just a few more yards." The girl huffed, hoping beyond hope that they had made it by seven. This trail, despite being of medium difficulty was hard enough for her and she was just glad they hadn't gotten the complicated one. She was certain they would have failed if they had. She did wonder which of the other two teams had it and she felt bad for them.
"Puck, Mercedes," Will greeted as they finally reached him and the cabin. Mercedes was panting from their long track up the mountain. "Congratulations, you've made it by seven and are the second team to arrive. That means you two will sleep in comfort tonight and another ten thousand dollars will be added to the pot, making the day's total so far twenty thousand dollars." The two of them cheered and Puck whooped. "Go get comfortable while we wait for Kurt and Blaine."
Puck had a knowing smirk on his face as they headed inside. Innuendos filled his head at the realization that Kurt and Blaine would be sleeping out on the mountain that night. Mercedes didn't miss the look on his face as she rolled her eyes.
"So, does this mean we're waiting on team gay?" Santana quipped as Puck and Mercedes entered the cabin. Finn bit his lip. He only hoped that Kurt and Blaine had taken his advice. Well, a part of him did because he wanted that exemption. But a part of him didn't like the idea of them being out there after dark as the sun was quickly setting. And he wanted the money but it was too late now. Whatever happened happened.
Night had fallen by the time Kurt and Blaine were making the last track up the mountain, Blaine actually carrying Kurt just like he had said he would. The two of them had traveled some distance down the mountain before meeting the end of the route with a tree blocking their path. That had them all turned around and had taken hours off their time limit, landing them well after seven and dark by the time they had gotten on the right path and were making the home stretch.
Blaine was carrying Kurt bridal style over the top of the mountain. He could just make out Will on the porch of the cabin, bathed in the light flooding from the windows. He approached the host and set Kurt down.
"Kurt, Blaine, congratulations on finally making it here, but I'm afraid that you've arrived well after seven, which means five thousand dollars will be taken from the pot." The two of them groaned. Why was it always them losing the money? Will called for the others to come out of the cabin. "You are also the last to arrive, meaning you'll be spending the night together out here on the mountain." Kurt groaned at this.
"Great, I'll never get any beauty sleep, sleeping out here and freezing my perfect ass off."
Should have thought about that before you started the journey, thought the mole.
"I'll keep you warm, don't worry Kurt," Blaine said, wrapping an arm around him.
"I'm sure you will hobbit," Santana said with a wink. "For that, I'll forgive you guys for losing us another five thousand dollars."
"The pot now stands at one hundred and eight thousand dollars," Will said. They all cheered. "Finn, I believe you have something to share with everyone?" Puck and Mercedes exchanged looks.
Finn drew a breath. "Will offered me an exemption if I could successfully delay one of the teams from arriving on time." He threw Kurt and Blaine an apologetic look. "So I told Kurt and Blaine that the mountain they were climbing lead to a dead end cliff. If I had known they would have ended up sleeping out here though, I might have chosen another team." Everyone groaned and Santana glowered at him. At this stage in the game, Mercedes was the only one left who had not earned an exemption.
"Finn, you successfully delayed Kurt and Blaine from arriving by seven. You have therefore earned yourself an exemption and cannot be executed tomorrow night. Congratulations. Early start in the morning so I suggest you all get some sleep. Kurt, Blaine, you have to spend the night out here. Good luck."
Let's see how many jealous people guess Finn as the mole now, the mole thought.
"It's going to be a long night," Kurt groaned out as he and Blaine watched the others disappear into the cabin. The only thing that made him feel any better was that he was stuck outside with Blaine. He couldn't think of anyone he'd rather share his punishment with. "But maybe it won't be so bad," he added with a fleeting smile toward Blaine smiled back and the two of them settled in for their long night ahead.
Comments
I still think the mole is Kurt. Every time I think someone is going to be kicked off they are the one with the exemption. I'll go with Quinn as I thought she would be out last time.
Exemptions are making their rounds. :) It's only a matter of time before everyone has had one at least and people are getting seconds. Keep reading and be sure to look for clues because there are clues and one I gave in chapter 7 to something regarding the future that I didn't write intentionally. ;) Hope you're enjoying it!