* * *
“Sam's scholarship dreams have finally been dealt a crushing blow, and we're down to our final four contestants. In the tidal pools, Ling and Sierra are searching carefully.”

Ling is now hanging silently above the golden pylon in the tidal pools. Thoughtfully, she starts to climb down the pillar, eyes fixed on her goal. Reaching the water, she lets go, landing waist-deep with a soft splash, and starts wading towards the goal. With a deep breath and a faint smile, she reaches out and taps the pylon.

Instantly, the pylon lights up like a carnival attraction. A pillar of light shoots up into the sky, and Ling staggers backwards in surprise. “Oops! It looks like the Chinese government never let our dear Ling see the tapes of previous years, or she'd have expected that! As soon as a girl touches all four pillars, the fourth lights to let everyone on the island know that the endgame is beginning. This is going to change the field pretty drastically.”

At the edge of the Forest, Amy looks up at the sky as light spears across it. With a gasp of fear, she breaks into a run, dashing into the forest. “Amy is behind the curve, and she knows it. If Ling can survive the Pools and reach the tower at the centre, all of the other girls will die. It's a race against the clock now.”

In the carnival, Miko barely even notices, racing as she is between the tents, her breasts bouncing and heaving, a thin trail of blood dripping behind her. Saul is now leaving the mirror maze, also dripping with blood from dozens of cuts, and he lets out a terrifying roar as he begins to race after her, flashlight in one hand, pausing occasionally to make sure that he has her trail. The two dash towards the edge of the tidal pools, Miko not even daring to look behind her as the sounds of the enraged Saul gradually draw closer. “Saul's abandoned all subtlety, and good idea. If Miko escapes, he's out of victims for this year. She has a head start, but he has the longer legs. Who's going to make it?”

Finally, in the Tidal Pools, Sierra has seen the pillar of light, and freezes for a moment – then slowly smiles. Quickly and quietly, she starts towards the light. “Smart thought from our little refugee, but maybe dangerous. That pillar tells her where she needs to go – but it also tells Lee that he's running out of time. He may have waited too long with Sam. If he runs into Sierra along the way, she's not getting out of this alive. On the other hand… she's badly behind, needing two more pylons to win. Time to go for broke, I suppose.” Sierra, only a few minutes away from the light, quickly reaches it, and searches the now-darkened pool for any sign of her hunter. Reassured, she quickly crosses, taps the pylon, and begins to climb. “Sierra now only has the Forest arena left to explore. She's still behind, but not so badly.”

In the Carnival, Miko and Saul are racing towards the Tidal Pool border. Saul pulls out a knife tip-first, and snaps it as he tosses it side-handed towards his prey. Miko, hearing his intake of breath, changes direction and dodges behind a tent as the knife slams into the tent's pole. Saul takes advantage of the move to double his speed, racing around the tent corner after her.

Which is when Miko, who had skidded to a halt and spun, ducking low, closes her hand into a fist and slams it into Saul's groin.

Saul's eyes cross, and he lets out a quiet whimper as he doubles over. Quick as a flash, Miko is back up and running. “Oooh. Looks like Saul didn't think ahead quite as far as Charlton did, folks.” Slowly, Saul staggers to his feet, eyes wide with rage, and tries to stumble after Miko, before stopping with a wince. “And Miko's pulling away! She's heading straight for the Tidal Pools!”
Miko races across the Tidal Pool borders, changing direction to head towards the light she saw. From as far as she was, she can't make a precise judgement, but she has a start. She runs to the edge of a cliff, hoping to get a better overview of the area around her… just as Ling climbs up it from the other side and pauses, breasts against the rock as her hands reach for holds.

For a fraction of a second, the Chinese girl and the Japanese girl stare at each other in shock. Both are disheveled, Ling is still wearing her red bikini, wet from the water and badly-patched, while Miko is naked and covered in cuts. Ling's short hair is spiked from the water, while Miko's hair is stringy and torn, her nose piercing still in place. Ling's small breasts fill her bikini, while Miko's massive ones heave with fear. Miko looks at Ling, and takes a step back.

And then Ling lets out a shriek of agony, and slips backwards. The camera pans down, to where Shen Lee has taken a second path and reached the rock wall that Ling is clinging tenaciously, reaching silently out from a small cave set into the cliff face. In his hand, he holds a sharp, jagged fish-hook, with a half-pound weight attached to it. An identical weight has been hooked through Ling's left foot, which is now kicking wildly at the air.

Shen smiles softly, and reaches out, jamming the second weight into Ling's other foot. Ling screams in Chinese, eyes wide, and desperately starts to try to pull herself upwards. Her left foot starts to rise from its hold to another place, and Shen quickly jabs another fishhook into it. A moment later, as her right foot reaches upwards, Lee stabs a spike with an even larger weight attached through her ankle, drawing forth another scream of agony. Each time that one of her feet lifts from the ground, another hook is stabbed into it. Ling can't get a purchase, and is screaming in pain as she tries to pull herself up using only her arms. Miko, heart in her throat, watches the Chinese girl's crazed expression, and starts to silently back away. Ling screams again, managing to gain several inches as she pulls forwards. But Shen Lee isn't quite finished.

Sitting easily in his small cave, he looks over Ling's feet with some satisfaction as the girl tries to pull herself up. There are now five pounds worth of weights attached to each foot, and Ling's screams redouble as her efforts tear through the flesh of her feet, leaving blood pooling on the narrow rock that she is standing on. As she does, Shen quietly scatters dozens of sharp pins underneath her, watching as she pulls herself up, then hooks another weight into the meat of her leg.

The sudden weight pulls Ling down, and as she does, her feet land on the sharp spike. With a cry of surprise and pain, she jerks her feet away from the ledge… leaving her kicking at air, as the weights fall and start tearing again. She begins to babble in Chinese, incoherent pleas as she tries to pull herself up, trying to reach out to Miko to save her.

Here, Miko has a lucky break. Shen Lee assumes that the pleas are directed at him, and reaches for his next set of weights - two small iron balls, each weighing ten pounds, attached by short chains that he loops around Ling's ankles. As Ling screams in terror, her feet pulled inexorably downwards, Miko slips silently away.

Ling scrabbles for purchase, but she is slowly sliding backwards. There are now thirty pounds of weight tied to her legs, leaving them completely immobile, and putting agonizing strain on her muscles. Her nails snap and her fingers bleeed as she tries to dig into the stone, watching the rim of the cliff slide further away with every passing second. Finally, she manages to grip the cliff's rim, and hangs on to the cliff by her torn and bleeding fingers.

Now, Shen Lee reaches out, with a cruel smile. As he gently caresses Ling's breasts, she looks down at him in terror, whimpering softly. She doesn't beg – she doesn't see the point.

Lee smiles at the girl, knowing that her only choice is to hang on, or else fall into the rocks below. “Hang on for one minute, and I'll make it quick.” He promises with a smile. Ling nods, eyes filled with despair. Ling gently slides the bikini off, revealing her breasts, and runs his fingers over them with interest. Then, curiously, he runs his hands up her thighs. Ling moans softly as his fingers explore her, and he begins to caress her clit. She whimpers, trying to hang on, as his movements become more precise, more encouraging. Despite the pain, possibly because of the fear, she begins to shudder.

Before she can reach orgasm, however, the intimacy becomes too much for her. Ling's arms, already strained to their limit, slip. Shen pulls his hand back as, with a scream of terror, she plummets past him. Her cry is broken off a few seconds later as she slams into the sharp rocks on the edge of the sea, bones shattering under the impact. She is still breathing, blood pooling around her, as the waves pull her into the sea, water filling her lungs as the last of her blood mixes with the surf.