For the next few days, the contestants gardened, sunbathed, fished and read the few books they possessed between them. They got on reasonably well.
Snow finally learned how to fish.
But there were signs of cracking, at least in her case.
The gnome came to sleep beside her, whether for his comfort or hers was not clear.
They mourned and roasted lettuces.
Grew tomatoes, grapes and weeds.
Maybe it was because they had a common purpose: said purpose being to ensure they did not starve.
Tita turned up and invited them to come with her for the next Challenge.
She had planted a maze on a former community lot.
There were a few gnomes hiding in the maze. The Sim who found the Egyptian gnome first would be the winner.
"They move around - so even I don't know where they are. As usual, hidden cameras, yada yada yada."
There were other interesting things in the maze. There was a swimming pool, a hot tub, a time machine, a bed, a fancy coffee-machine, a bath, even a small fridge.
Oddly, Rufio was thinking about the hot tub, not a laptop.
"I can see you in the pool, Rufio, but how did you GET there?"
Jeromy, medicine?
Jeromy had his own way of mourning.
Jeebus found a vampire gnome.
Ahhh... Rufio found a Chinese gnome. And kicked it, which seemed appropriate.
And Snow found a time machine. But there were no gnomes in there.
Rufio gave up on the bath after unsuccessfully trying to shoo everyone away.
"Oh coffee! How I have missed you. Oh Myskaal. You used to make a good cup of coffee, all that time ago, back in Twinbrook."
Jeebus and Snow spotted the Egyptian gnome at the same time, but Jeebus elbowed her out of the way and got to the gnome first.
"I hate you, Jeebus."
Meggie found the bed and had a delicious night's sleep, staying later than the others, who had all drifted home talking of marshmallows and roast anchovies.
Much later, after Meggie had gone home, Motoki got into the still warm bed and slept, in his turn, quite soundly.
Back at camp, Myskaal popped out of his grave that night but didn't go anywhere.
And in the morning there was a bath, and breakfast for Motoki.
Tita returned after watching the videos and doing the calculations.
In the cemetery, Tita broke the news. "First, Jeebus won the challenge by being the first to find the Egyptian gnome. But Rufio, you had a row with Jeebus! And you managed to do it off-camera!"
"err... yes. Why? Ohhh. Oh."
"It's time for you to go."
"I've been doing some research. This is the Mummy's Curse. I've been told it's painless.
'It is I who hinder the sand from choking the secret chamber. I am for the protection of the deceased.
Let the hand raised against my form be withered! Let them be destroyed who attack my name, my foundations, my effigies, the images like unto me!'"
Rufio appeared to rise up in the air in a black whirlwind. And then suddenly shattered into fragments of ash, which drifted down to the ground.
They all stood there, looking at the small pile of ash that had been Rufio.
"Dinner time!" said Tita.