Survival of the Fittest
Double the love today with an update for Survival of the Fittest and also a surprise SEQUEL to Lady of the Lake, named The Lady of Shalott.
I've been a busy busy bee.
See you guys soon, Chapter 8 will be on the way!
No review responses this chapter.
Thanks!
Chapter 7
The convoy of 6 cars slow down as we drive further into the city backstreets, skirting fallen rubble and smashed vehicles like the ones we currently ride in, but far more decayed and wasted away. We'd left the monsters, the Capitols Muttations behind, but for how long?
Snow had warned us this would be the most dangerous Arena ever constructed, and it seemed that this was true.
The vehicles had gotten us out of that dire situation, but now they present their own danger.
They are loud.
"We need to find a place to fortify," I call out, both to Cato and Peeta, and also the three in the cab of the truck, "Any suggestions?"
"Limited entrances and exits," Cato informs me, blue eyes searing as he looks forwards once more, "The last thing we want is to be overwhelmed. Choke points limit that."
"We need access to water," Katniss points out, twisting around to look back at us, a smear of dirt across one cheek, "Protection won't help if we die from dehydration first."
I look around at the ruined buildings we're driving past and frown slightly.
"What we need is to know more about this Arena," I look back at Cato, who is watching me intently, "We can't plan a defense without knowledge, or supplies."
"What do you suggest?" he asks, and it feels like a test, his eyes are as assessing as a Game Maker as he considers me.
I scan the street and spot a block of buildings that have wide streets. I get up on my knees and wave to the cars behind us, signalling them to stop.
"Stop the truck Thresh!"
He pulls to the side of the road and we all hop out, as Tributes spill out of the newly stopped vehicles and over to us, looking frightened, pale and desperate. The girl from nine has red rimmed eyes, and everyone is avoiding looking at her.
We'd left her partner behind with the monsters, being eaten alive.
She's as good as dead, and everyone is eyeing her, wondering when it's going to happen.
I tear my eyes away from her and give everyone a shaky smile.
"We need to do some reconnaissance." I inform them, gesturing at the buildings behind me. "We are scouting for supplies, for weapons, or anything that can be used as a weapon, and for a place to fortify."
"You want to go in there!?" The boy from eight looks green at the thought, "Are you mad!?"
"Four is right," Clove steps forwards, supremely confident, with a small smirk on her catlike mouth, "We can't make any sensible decisions without information. But we do this smart."
I ease back and let the girl from 2 take charge. Her strategy is simple but effective. We now number 23. Ten of us will surround the building and keep a look out. Seven will remain with the vehicles, ready to drive. That leaves Six to scout the buildings as quickly and as quietly as possible.
The six inside will need to be armed, who knows what they'll find in there.
We pool the resources grabbed, and I hand the vest of throwing knives to Clove who accepts them with obvious pleasure, buckling them on at once.
No one questions it.
I pass Darrien the trident, and he spins it with a casual, easy grace that I envy, even as I shiver at the look on his face. He's never looked so serious, so determined. And I realise that we're all changing already. We're adapting...but who will we be by the end of this?
I keep the medkit in the truck, using a chain in the bottom of the flatbed to secure it. The last thing we need is precious medical supplies flying out.
Thresh is staying with the truck, which is a loss to the scouting party, but we don't have so many people who can drive to swap him out. He'll need to teach some more of us, maybe. But we don't have time right now.
Cato chooses himself, Marvel, Glimmer, Clove and Darrien immediately for the supply run, and after hesitating for long moments he finally selects Peeta with obvious and unwilling reluctance.
It's the sensible choice. Katniss might be the better at combat, but she's best with a bow and arrow, inside will be close quarters, much better for Peeta's wrestling and strength. But Cato seems very, very unwilling to put the boy from 12's life in jeopardy, understandably.
I'm given a position just inside the doors, where I can be signalled from the outside and call up to the looters inside the builders to warn them. Darrien is the one that insists on it, as he is the only one who really knows about my poor eyesight. The others agree, most don't want to be anywhere near the inside of the building, and the others want to be closer to the cars.
Thresh grips my arm just before we all part ways, dark eyes looking at me intently.
"Stay safe."
I nod, no way am I putting both our lives at risk.
It all goes smoothly until we loot the fourth building.
Almost simultaneously I hear combat from inside the building, and then I hear one of the watch people whistle sharply, waving at me as I look around again.
The monsters have found us.
And our Careers are inside fighting.
I duck back inside the building and put my two fingers in my mouth to blow the most ear piercing whistle I've ever blown. The sound rings in the concrete stairwell and then I hear a whistle in return. Someone's heard me.
"Go!" I shout, as I poke my head out of the building, seeing the lookouts hesitating, frozen with fear and indecision, "Get to the vehicles."
"What about…" Teesa looks up at the building and it's the first time I think I've ever seen her look afraid.
"We'll go in Thresh's truck. Everyone else MOVE!"
"She's right!" Katniss' commanding voice is what gets them going in the end, "Go! Go! Go!"
They run, but the girl from 12 lingers for a second, before gripping my arm and dashing off, Rue by her side.
Once they've gone, I look at Teesa, the only one that's remained.
Understandably. There's no point in running if Clove is dead. Although the boy from 10 didn't hang around for Glimmer. Again...understandable with his twisted foot.
Soundlessly we grab up metal bars from the scrap heap near the door and prepare ourselves.
The monsters leap around the corner, like ravening, almost human insects, just as the door behind us slams open and the Career pack charges out, bleeding, but there, and armed, and with bulging backpacks.
"What are you still doing here!" Cato roars at us, before suddenly the monsters are upon us, and all words are lost in a maelstrom of teeth, claws, and shouts.
One pins me to the ground in the melee and I scream as teeth snap at me, only held at bay by the desperate shove of the metal bar between us. The next moment the creature is flying across the alleyway, and there are hands grabbing me, shoving, pulling, yanking.
I find my feet and then we're running, people on either side of me, as we hurtle around the corner and pile into the truck as Thresh revs the engine. Once again I find myself shoved into the flatbed of the vehicle, which vibrates as we speed off.
I push into a sitting position and look around at the other, very shaken, faces around me.
Glimmer and Marvel are in the cab with Thresh, but the rest are with me, piled into the back. Cato has a scratch down the side of his face which is bleeding quite heavily, Peeta's jaw is red and Darrien appears to have red burn weals across his hands. I'm squished in next to Darrien and Peeta, Cato beside the boy from 12, then Clove and Teesa.
The backpacks are still on their owners backs, with the Careers looking unwilling to shed them.
Soon enough we meet up with the other cars which are driving slower, waiting for us, without stopping and that's when Cato takes charge again, getting to his feet and gripping the small rail behind the cab to steady himself. Everyone inches closer as well, pressing against his legs like a bulwark, and I smile slightly.
We're thinking like a team.
"This way," Cato gestures to the other vehicles, which fall into line behind us. Then he calls out directions to Thresh as we listen in.
"The building had an accessible roof," Clove informs us, voice quiet, "We got a good look around. The Arena is a ruined city, with a park in the middle which is overgrown. We're heading to a building near it called...Police. Which is what Peacekeepers used to be called before the War."
"Wait this city is from...before?" Teesa looks fascinated and I can't help but feel a frisson of curiosity too.
"Maybe…" Clove shrugs, "Or it's been made to look like it is…"
The vehicles pull up outside the building emblazoned with a crumbling sign stating, Police Station, with an almost shapeless crest, which has been weathered and worn so much its features are molded together.
Everyone piles out, looking nerve wracked and terrified and we all group up together.
"These fences are good…" Cato, grumbles as I move forward, looking at the symmetrical gaps in the walls, "If only there wasn't these gaps! Great to drive through but they'll be near impossible to guard."
"They look like gates, see? Automated ones." Teesa points out, moving forward alongside me and then across to the wall, pointing out grilled frames we hadn't noticed, "Help me pull these…"
Everyone rushes over and with all the help the gates slide across, blocking the gaps even if they don't lock into place. It's a start, and already everyone looks much more relieved.
"Lets go." Cato nods and everyone falls silent, "Let's clear this place, top to bottom, and then we can set up. Careers, on me. Katniss, take some people and check out those buildings over there...the rest of you, stay near the vehicles."
By nightfall we're all in a reasonably good position, with the building clear and secured and the exploration into the contents underway.
The building is three levels, as well as a stairwell accessible roof. There is the ground floor which we entered on, and seems to mostly be made up of one central area broken up by ruined and rotting furniture. There are rooms down either side of the space, small offices with barred windows. Upstairs there are more offices around winding corridors, as well as a lab which we leave shut, after checking for any creatures. Downstairs in a small basement is a small jail, with five cells, and a weapons lock up which is regrettably empty.
Katniss' group reports that the buildings within the walls are garages, with ruined vehicles inside and some salvageable items. As well as another small office beside it.
For the next few hours all hands go to work clearing the space of rotting materials, dumping them in the big metal containers outside which Thresh tells us look like grain bins, but which smell like old rot.
By sunset the place has been cleared, with the reusable stuff piled outside near the gates and everyone is settling down, making themselves at home.
There are sixteen offices as well as the five jail cells downstairs, but no one seems particularly keen to grab those. Some people are eager to share, so I find myself in one of the smaller offices upstairs. Darrien and Marvel are sharing, downstairs, near the entrance, as are Katniss and Rue. Peeta is across the hall from me, and Cato is next door. I drop my backpack in there, along with the medical kit retrieved from the truck, before I leave, heading up to the roof.
The sun is setting across the ruined city, buildings cast in dark gold light as the sun slowly slides down behind the horizon.
The girl from District 9, Marta, I remember now, is sitting on the edge of the wall, staring out at it all. Her body wracks with little shivers, although I know it's not cold that she's feeling but terror.
I'd thought, in those brief moments when I'd even considered the possibility of my own death, that it would be instant. That Thresh would die and I would immediately be snuffed out with him. It's been hours and Marta is still with us, though we all know it's not for long.
It's a special kind of cruelty, to make her wait, agonising over how it will be, helpless to save herself.
I take a seat beside her and look out over the wall too. There are creatures skulking around out there, but they're wary….or waiting. None of them approach our gates which Teesa and Keran have been plotting how to defend.
"I don't want to die," Marta's voice is quiet, almost mumbled, her straight blonde hair hanging limply around her face, "I don't...maybe they won't…"
They will.
Both of us know it.
"I just...I wish I knew when…" she bites her lip and looks up at me, eyes red and puffy, "I wish I-"
She stops talking.
For a moment I think she's cut herself off, but the next moment I realise that she's no longer quivering from her nerves. Her body shudders and her eyes roll back, as she convulses.
For a moment I'm frozen in horror, and then I grab her, pulling her away from the edge as I try to help, to do something, anything.
For a moment I see her eyes, staring, straining up at me, the blue eyes turning red as blood vessels burst.
For a moment I almost drop her, I almost scream.
For a moment I notice that the sun has disappeared below the horizon.
Then she goes still in my arms, the horrifying stillness that only a dead creature can achieve. Her mouth is awash with bloody foam, her hand reaching for something, anything, now left in a claw as she leaves her body behind.
And across the Arena two Cannons boom.
