A/N- I've got to warn you, updates may slow down in a couple of chapters. My parents think I'm spending too much time online and have begun demanding my return to someplace called "The Real World". I'll do my best to keep writing, but if I all of a sudden lurch to a stop, you know why.
Chapter Seven
Disha Lawrence, District 4
We don't even look at each other anymore. I try not to think about Blister-face at all. But he's always over there, walking, breathing, eating. Every noise he makes makes my skin crawl.
I'm surprised we haven't killed each other yet. But we haven't. As much as I'm sure we'd both like to, just to make the annoying stop.
We break camp in silence. We know the routine. There's blessed little need to talk.
Through the entire day we hold silence. It's almost a game. Like, Hey! Let's see how long we can go without talking! Whoever breaks this silence better have a good reason, or they'll probably get a real earful. I know I'd give him one. But in my defense, he'd probably insult me first. So he deserves it.
Turns out we're not the ones who break the silence after all. What does is an arrow that flies right past my head.
We both spring to the side, pulling out weapons. I dive behind a tree as I fumble for my spear, and Brister rolls behind a rock so he can flip out his knife. There's silence. The arrow sticks out of the ground at an angle, still vibrating slightly.
Slowly, I peek around the side of the tree opposite of where the arrow came at me.
For a moment I don't see anything, but then I catch the slowest of movements. To. And she's reloading her bow.
I slink back to the opposite side of the tree and turn my side to To. Even though the tree's probably wide enough to cover my body, it never hurts to provide a smaller target. I work hard to catch Brister's eye. He glares at me, but I jerk my head, hold up three fingers, and pantomime drawing a bow. For a moment he stares at me like I'm crazy, then realization sets in. We're facing possibly the most dangerous person in this Game, and all we have to rely on is each other. Joy.
I motion with my head that he should circle around back. He points to make sure. I nod impatiently. He slips around the tree and out of my sight. I take a deep breath and stick my head around the other side of the tree. To has her bow loaded and has pulled back the bow string or whatever you call it, with her hand back pulled 'til it's right next to her right eye.
I take a deep breath. Now for my job.
"You don't really want to try that, do you To?"
I just catch her look my way before I slip around to the far side of the tree again.
"Why not?"
"Because," I begin, trying to sound as dangerous as possible, "We're both armed, Drai and me. Together we can take you." I leave out the fact that I'm an awful fighter. She doesn't need to know that.
To snorts. "Sure you can. Not like I can shoot you from thirty feet away or anything."
"Not if we're fast enough," I say, and smoothly lie, "I'm the fastest runner in my school."
"Not faster than an arrow."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
"You want to find out? I dare you."
"Maybe I will. But I think you'll be disappointed, To."
"You talk tough. Who are you, anyway?"
"Disha Lawrence. District 4."
"Ah, yes. I remember you. You're not going to last to see the top ten."
"Your confidence in me is just heartwarming."
"It's not my job to make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy inside."
I curse to myself. What's taking that boy so long? I laugh loudly. "Don't worry To, nobody's accusing you of that."
I can almost hear her smile. "I like you. Too bad we had to meet here of all places."
"Ironic, isn't it? I'm afraid I'll probably be the last person you ever meet. Too bad."
To laughs. "You going to keep talking tough, or are you going to put some muscle behind it? This whole routine is only going to keep me entertained for so long, you know. I've got other people to hunt."
"Doesn't seem like you've had much luck. Nobody's died in the last five, six days or so."
"That's because I've been planning. I'm ready now. Things are going to-"
I never found out what things were going to, because that was when Brister attacked her.
I don't know how he got up into that tree without her hearing him, but he did. All I can hear is a loud grunt, a shriek, and the sound of thrashing, before I hear a thud. I whip to the other side of the tree. They've both fallen out, but neither seems to be hurt. To landed on top of Brister, and leaps off him almost immediately, fumbling to reload her bow.
Brister lunges forward.
Just as To shoots him.
He howls in pain as the arrow thuds into his shoulder.
"You're dead." He growls.
"Sure I am." To hisses back.
Brister yanks the arrow out. For dramatic effect I guess. I curse. That idiot! That was only going to make him bleed more. He swipes at To, who jerks back. It would have looked funny if she hadn't done it so expertly. She reels back and punches him, knocking him onto his butt. She leaps backwards, apparently makes a quick decision not to try shooting with her aim impaired by the close-combat circumstances, and shoves her bow onto her shoulders. She pulls an arrow from her quiver, and slashes at Drai with the arrowhead.
He rolls back and then lunges at her with his knife aimed at her chest.
To dodges, grabbing his wrist and yanking him forward, off balance. She was good! If she could whup Drai, the fighter in our duo, then where was that going to leave me?
I make a split second decision, dashing toward their battle. I clumsily swipe at To with my spear. She rounds on me, nearly slitting my throat as she sweeps her arrow back and forth.
I jab again and hardly even distract her before she sidesteps Drai's latest assault. I'm dumbfounded. She fought me for two seconds and has already evaluated my danger as a threat. Or a non-threat. We need to end this fast; she's too good. I stab at her again, and actually scratch her this time because she had her back turned.
She whips around to beat me back again. I'm annoying her. Now I feel accomplished.
Drai stabs at her shoulder, and for once it's mere coincidence that saves her. She turns to slash dangerously at Drai. He ducks under her guard and slices up, probably aiming for her stomach but just ripping a hole through the abdomen of her shirt. She tackles him straight out, and I'm knocked over too, as they roll into my legs. We all struggle blindly for a moment. Like she doesn't even need to see, To manages to slice a gash in my leg.
Three of us manage to separate, and stand, heaving and panting, to stare at each other.
To inclines her head. "I'm impressed. I'll save killing you two for later." And just like that, she turns and walks off.
Brister and I are so dumbfounded we just stand there for a minute. What just happened? After the initial shock wears off we begin to collect our things. Obviously, we wouldn't have been able to fight carrying all our heavy packs.
I shake my head. I'm not sure if she really just stopped fighting because she decided she liked us, or if she was bluffing and actually thought she couldn't win.
For whatever reason, I'm glad. Even if To thought we could beat her, I don't quite share her confidence.
Rhiattany Hurley, District 9
I peek silently as the two kids (Drai and Dish...something) walk away from the battle scene. They're interesting, but I can't afford to go after them. Because I'm already following To.
It's the one thing I'm sure she'll never expect. So while To goes hunting, I'll always be close by. Although I miss my apple tree, this is the best thing to do, I'm sure of it.
She's already off toward wherever she's going, bow loaded, moving quietly. I don't know who she's after, but I feel pretty sorry for them.
Of course, there's a huge possibility she's after me and just plans to kill anyone she runs into along the way. If that's the case, she'll be looking for a long time. It's really hard to kill your shadow.
To Liscan, District 3
This is impossible! I should have taken out the two kids I saw earlier. I let my curiosity take control. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Now it's getting late. I climb into a tree, careful to choose one with a lot of leaves to make a good rustle if anyone tries to get into the tree to get at me. You'd need a good long-range weapon to touch me now, and the only thing I saw in the clearing that came even close to that was my bow and a few spears. I'm pretty sure no one here has the skill to throw a spear like that.
Of course, maybe someone will try to come up the tree after me, but they'll wake me up. In which case all I'd need was a well placed kick and they'd be on the ground. I don't think everybody can deal with falling out of tree as well as that boy I saw earlier. Not even me. It was lucky that I happened to fall on him, since he took the brunt of the impact.
I sigh and lay my head against the tree trunk. It's rough, and I know I'll have a sore neck when I wake up. I'm beginning to drift off when the anthem plays.
I'm immediately wide-awake.
Again, it's just the anthem, announcing no deaths. I frown. I don't know how much longer this can go on. I guarantee this won't happen next year.
Maybe it's bad that I'm already thinking about how it will be next year. Maybe I should be positive about it and hope that once will be enough. That one will be enough of a slap in the face to the Districts that they never try something so patently idiotic again.
Because there's no way they'll win. The rebels had one thing on their side: a desperate yearning to be free. That wasn't enough. It will never be enough.
I hold back tears expertly. It wasn't enough, and now I'm going to pay. I didn't have a perfect life; I don't love the Capitol. But I had a right to my slummy life before. The rebellion has taken that away from me. It's taken everything away from me.
I think that's the real reason I wouldn't join the boys from 1 and 8. Because the leader was a rebel.
Because he's responsible for this! They all are! Sure the Capitol was never a caring dictatorship, but they didn't want this either. They never would have done this on their own. It was retaliation; something the rebels had to accept might happen when they fought.
And it's not like the Capitol doesn't deserve restitution. They lost more than thirty thousand people to the war. I don't blame them for being angry, for wanting revenge.
But they're punishing the wrong people! Only Wrianin Abro deserves this.
A fire lights in my stomach. I don't really hate the people in this Game. Even that kid, Rhiattany, I only fight because she hates me now and will kill me if she gets the opportunity. But him I hate. In my mind, he's become the summary of the punishment I shouldn't have to suffer.
I've made up my mind. He'll suffer. No matter what, whether it's me or not, he'll suffer. Even if he lives through this (an injustice I just wouldn't be able to take) I'll find some way to come back and haunt him.
I try to smother the hate-fire that coils inside of me and threatens to make me squirm out of this tree right now and go hunt. Hate is dangerous. It's stupid. It's why I don't hate, or do drugs, or act out in school. Because it's stupid. I don't want to be stupid.
However, stupid is useful in others. Anyone who tried to fight a war against the Capitol is stupid. This shouldn't be hard at all.
The night sky is scattered with stars, looking so hard and frosted in the night sky. I'm a star now too. Cold and distant. Radiant and powerful. You reach for a star and you get burned.
Day fourteen.
Surviving Contestants
District 1: None
District 2: Fenn Zete (Fen Zet)
Flute French (I don't really need to explain this one, right?)
District 3: Audio Lome (Aw-dee-oh Loam)
To Liscan (Toe Liss-can)
District 4: Disha Lawrence (Disha Lore-ence)
District 5: Aria Lyemann (Ah-ree-uh Lie-man)
District 6: Wrianin Abro (Ree-anne-in Ah-bro)
District 7: Murk Fascia (Merk Fay-scha)
Ankha Zeet (Onk-uh Zeat)
District 8: Jiminy Frank (Jim-in-ee Fraynk)
District 9: Rhiattany Hurli (Ree-uh-taw-nee Hurley)
Distict 10: Narcis Aramis (Nawr-siss Air-uh-miss)
Pippa Fawn (Pih-puh Fawn)
District 11: Drai Brister (Dray Brisster)
Distict 12: Eulkichu Dambis (Ul-kitch-oo Dam-biss)
