Two weeks ago, my uncle died of cancer. Last week, I had to practice for my voice recital. Immediately after that, school decided to be a bitch and stress me out. I had absolutely no time to update. Sorry about that.

In short, my life's been hell lately. As a writer who puts her heart into her work, what I feel is reflected in what I write. To the weak and innocent readers, heed this warning: Bloody corpses. That's all I'm gonna say.

Last chapter had an all-English soundtrack. Time for an all-Japanese soundtrack: Sakasama No Chou by SNoW, Highschool of the Dead by Kishida Kyoudan, In My World by ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D. ^_^


Chapter Seven

The Precious Lives

Kururi cautiously poked at the weird thing on the ground with a stick. It wasn't moving but it definitely must have been alive before. She edged closer, staring at it to determine what exactly it was. A soft rustle sounded behind her and she whipped around to find her brother.

He walked towards her, his knife still in his hand and an alert look on his face. Kururi didn't want to think negatively but the arena was slowly and undoubtedly turning them into animals- hunter or hunted, she did not want to think about. "What's that over there?"

She shook her head, looking back down at the skeleton on the ground. It was an animal, that's for sure. But what? Torn-off flesh or fat or whatever was still intact and a seemingly pointy edge of an orange or yellow bone was covered in dried, crusty blood. "No idea. It's a corpse, obviously, but what animal? Maybe a big lizard or a bat or-"

Izaya lowered his knife as he neared his sister. "A bird."

"Yeah. Or a bird," she finished, looking around, "I found a few over there too. I thought they were still alive."

"They must have been alive a few hours ago. This one looks like it was impaled by a dagger," he said quietly, kneeling down to inspect the corpse, "My theory is that they're muttations that attacked tributes here earlier, which is why these are all dead. The big question is where are those tributes now? They couldn't have gone far. Tracing where we came from, the other side is blocked by large rocks from the landslide so..."

Kururi frowned, kicking away a dead bird and setting camp right on the spot. "They went the other direction, then. I don't think they'll be able to hurt us, though. We're totally safe-"

"Of course- the Careers!" her brother interrupted her sharply.

"What? Where?" She retrieved her slingshot, anxiously glancing around them.

Izaya glared at his sister. "No, that's not what I meant. It's just… Whoever set camp in this place a while ago was spying on the Careers!" He pointed at a certain wall of rocks up ahead. "Right there, next to that huge boulder, is the entrance to the Cornucopia cave. Why didn't I notice that before?"

The younger sibling squinted at the boulder. "Well, yeah. If you push that aside, it does look like a cave opening…"

"Whoever thought of spying on the Careers right outside of their territory must have been clever," he continued pensively, pacing as he went through the list of tributes in his mind, "You saw Celty go downhill yesterday, so it's impossible that she came back up in a short amount of time. The guy from District Six went uphill along with the huge, black man with an axe. That leaves… Erika and Walker. It must have been them. Why did they leave this spot, though? It's perfect."

Kururi rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Iza-nii. Let's just go to sleep. We can look for Shizuo and Shinra tomorrow."

He bit his lip. "No. It's obvious that protozoan and I didn't get along at all, so it was actually a good thing when the damn landslide separated us from each other. Besides, we don't have the luxury to share any of our resources. We should focus on killing them. Allies aren't necessary for our survival at this point."

"How about friends?" she whispered, getting inside her sleeping bag, "Humans always need friends."

The older brother froze and stared back at his sister, who was already asleep. The wind whistled and he instinctively wrapped his jacket tighter around him for warmth. Humans… There was only one thing left to do.

He silently left his sister and went to the rocky wall covering the Cornucopia cave. There was an extremely high chance that Erika and Walker were inside instead of the Careers. Spying was a very engaging thing to do, and the only plausible reason they had for leaving their spot was if the Careers left the cave.

The two were most probably looting all the items. Izaya felt the sudden urge to go inside.

Erika and Walker were friendly and seemed like people who would think things through by weighing the advantages. He could simply propose a deal. His sister was safe under their new tree. She didn't have to know. He'd be back before dawn with more weapons and food for them to share.

He reached the large boulder and pushed it with all his might. It didn't budge. He kicked it, punched it, and did everything he could to dislodge the damn thing, but to no avail. That's when he noticed that tiny particles of dust and small pieces of stone were littered around the boulder. Also, not only one, but several medium-sized rocks were wedged in between the edges of the boulder and the rocky wall.

The landslide must have caused the upper mountain rocks to block the entrance.

Erika and Walker were caved in.

Izaya laughed. As soon as the Careers would come back and find the two young tributes trapped inside their fortress, it would give him a chance to manipulate a whole new situation to his advantage.

Oh, how he missed doing that.

He trudged back to their spot and checked to see if Kururi was awake, which, of course, she wasn't. There were great plans in store tomorrow. Only a few minutes since his beautiful discovery of the cave-in brought him several ideas as to how to manipulate the Careers and the two tributes stuck in the cave.

"I'm going to make tomorrow… an interesting day," he said loudly to himself for the whole of Panem to hear.

The sky darkened, signalling night time. Izaya rummaged through his pack for any leftover food from the day. No such luck. All they had was tons of water from the rain. Perhaps tomorrow he could hunt first thing in the morning. Then, he and his sister could start his brilliant, fully-formed plan of action.

For now, the night was getting darker and rest was essential.

He laid down his sleeping bag and sat down, looking up at the stars barely visible behind the slowly retreating storm clouds. Soon, the national anthem played and the seal of the Capitol flashed in the sky. The death recap was about to start.

Izaya knew that the person who died must have been victimized by the landslide because the cannon had boomed once, a few minutes after the rocks had started sliding downhill. However, it was highly possible that the Gamemakers aimed to wipe off more tributes with the landslide, which ultimately failed since- well, only one guy got killed. This simply meant hell for the remaining tributes the next day. As if today wasn't hell enough.

He watched tiredly as the district number that appeared in the sky was nine.

And the tribute was Seiji Yagiri.


Celty Sturluson clutched her shoulder tightly. She had no idea how to properly use leaves as bandages, and droplets of blood were still dripping down on the ground as she walked downhill. A certain bespectacled doctor instantly entered her mind, but she knew that wishing for him and his skills was going to be in vain at this point.

Shinra's words during training echoed in her mind. There's nothing wrong with making friends. You're scared. You push me away. I know it's the Hunger Games we're getting into, but what does it matter?

The sun shone brightly and the heat of noon made her sweat and curse. Thinking about Shinra definitely didn't lessen her desperation. She decided to clear her mind by pondering on the recent events in the arena. It was officially the third day. Last night, the death recap revealed that the younger brother of the two siblings from District Nine had died. Doubtlessly, it must have been the landslide which had caused it.

She winced at the memory of having a huge rock hurtling down at her, only to slice open her shoulder.

Well, being chased by muttations the other day was still worse.

Fine, she was grateful for the bread the sponsors gave her as soon as she woke up in the morning, but it would have been better if she had gotten proper bandages instead. Perhaps the sponsors thought she could handle it, or maybe she looked hungrier than she looked in pain. Well, yes, it was true. She was very hungry.

Now, all there was to do was to go downhill. It seemed like she had finally crossed to the lowest part of the mountain because trees were getting more ubiquitous and animals started appearing more frequently as she descended. The ground was even getting sort of flatter.

Suddenly, she spotted a shining glass-like glint of light in front of her.

Celty smirked and roughly touched it with her spear. Confirming her thoughts, the spear carried a strong vibration, along with a soft sizzle, and its tip was slightly blackened from the touch.

It was a force field.

The Gamemakers obviously didn't want anyone getting off the mountain.

The good part about discovering it was that it proved her extraordinary senses weren't affected by the impact on her shoulder. She could still see extremely sharply, having been able to pick up the presence of the force field as if it was a golden statue floating right in front of her. It would have been bad if she walked into it.

The bad part, however, was that it made Celty's whole trip downhill completely pointless. She wasted time and energy going downhill just to find out that the Gamemakers didn't want any tribute getting off the mountain to escape the arena. It was silly of her to think that they'd let the tributes be able to reach as far as the flat, grassy fields.

Celty groaned and sat down, leaning on a tree which was right next to the force field boundary. She could stay here and wait for other people to come down to simply kill them instead. However, that would be a sort of lazy way to win, so she decided to just rest for a while and fix her shoulder up more carefully before going uphill once more.

She realized that the ground was quite uneven, most probably because lots of soil and rocks fell down all the way to the bottom during the landslide. It would be best if she hurried fixing up her wound since staying in a place where she'd be prone to being buried alive would be extremely risky.

The blood had stopped spilling out at alarming rates and the other leaves Celty had started using were proving to be even more absorbent than the previous ones. She stood up, secured the pickaxe and pack of bread on her belt, and held her spear tightly as she began her trip back upwards. Running across other tributes while still having a wounded and painful shoulder would be a huge disadvantage, so she tried her best to be sneaky and silent.

After a few minutes of the temperature slowly rising and early morning turning into broad daylight, Celty finally heard a sound other than random birds tweeting and her feet occasionally stepping on twigs.

"Where do you think you're going, lady?"

It was the voice of a man.

She quickly hid behind a bent tree and watched as the Career tributes- only Ran Izumii, Slon Ortolski, and Vorona Juvilova- confronted an aggravated Namie Yagiri. Celty recognized Namie as the older sister of the only guy who died from the landslide yesterday. The three had their backs to her while the black-haired woman was the only one facing the redhead.

"Get out of my way," Namie threatened, although she swallowed nervously, "I simply want to go downhill."

Ran cackled cruelly. "What? You think we're going to just let you go? You think you're going to win the fucking Hunger Games? Fight first, else be called a coward! It's just a shame you're so pretty…"

Celty gripped her spear, aiming it to throw at Ran. It was so tempting to kill him.

Namie didn't move. She stood her ground and closed her eyes, as if waiting for the death blow. Ran glared at her, while Slon and Vorona watched the scene unfold. Before Celty could make a move, Namie spoke loudly, "Kill me. I'd rather be with my brother than idiotically think I'd stand a chance against you three. Because I honestly really don't. I want to die." Her dark eyes momentarily flickered over to the redhead's emerald green ones.

She saw Celty hiding. She knew Celty planned to save her.

She didn't want to be saved.

Then, a broken whisper. "I'm coming, Seiji."

Celty felt her eyes widen and lowered her spear, shocked. Ran immediately chopped her head off with his trident- a gift from his sponsors. Namie's head rolled down right next to the tree, leaving a trail of blood, and the cannon boomed, signalling her obvious death. Slon's obnoxious laugh was heard and Vorona giggled uneasily as they looted her bag.

Vorona spoke gleefully, "Hey, she's got bow and arrows. I'd like to keep this."

Ran answered softly, "Bow and arrows, huh? I'm getting that, thank you very much. Now hand it over."

"No way. I found it first! You may be the leader but that doesn't mean you get everything."

"If it wasn't for me, your boyfriend would have died from the fucking landslide yesterday, ungrateful bitch!"

"He's not my boyfriend. Besides, you already have that goddamn trident."

"Do you really want to oppose me?"

"Hell yeah, I-!"

"Vorona, don't! Just stop it," Slon interrupted hysterically, putting himself in between the two arguing tributes. Their banter was getting too heated. "It's not worth it. You can use rock paper scissors or something."

Ran grinned nastily. "Step aside, idiot. Your girl wants my bow and arrows, but I'm the one who killed the woman who previously owned them. Are you blind?"

Vorona ignored Slon. "I found the damn items. Just give them to me. You're being fucking unfair all the time!"

"You want to be on my kill list, right next to that Anri girl?"

"Well, she's way better than you'll ever be!"

Celty barely contained her gasp as the sound of metal meeting flesh echoed throughout the area. She prayed that none of them heard her and risked a peek at the Careers, inching slightly sideways in a cautious manner.

It was Slon. He had stepped in front of Vorona and received the end of the bloody trident.

"N-no… Slon… NO!" She lowered her knife and caught her friend. He gazed up at her and their eyes locked in a final conversation before Slon went limp and his last words of love went stale on his lips. Vorona sobbed freely when the cannon resounded right afterwards. "Wh-why…?"

Then, the blonde screamed and threw a knife at Ran, who wasn't able to dodge and got hit in the arm. She sprinted away from the scene, tossing the bow and arrows way downhill and out of sight. Ran roared and chased her, his weapon still in his good hand and bloody murder the only thing on his mind.

Celty stepped forward from her hiding place and silently watched as the Capitol's aircraft flew above her and descended the huge, metallic hand, which collected the corpses of the two dead tributes. She paled as Slon's body went up first, away from the arena and Vorona forever. Truly, the Hunger Games was a cruel thing.

The metal claw went back for Namie's headless body. Celty quickly closed the woman's eyes and gently placed the head where it should have been attached to the neck, making it look like a decent corpse.

She clenched her fists as the detached body and head were brought up to the aircraft as well. After a few minutes of standing still in silent rage, she retrieved her tab and typed. [The Capitol has no right to encourage murder and throw away the precious lives of their own people.] Her hand shook as she raised the tab up and stared defiantly at the pink and red sky for the world to see. It was probably stupid of her to openly show opposition, but her frustration had reached its limit.

Two tributes dead in less than five minutes. There were only fifteen of them left.


"This place reminds me of Amnesia," Walker said amusedly, holding up his lantern, "You know- the video game."

"Yeah. Except we're not in a castle, but in a mountain," Erika added thoughtfully, turning to look at her companion, "And we're not in Prussia, wherever that awesome place is. And the darkness doesn't make us insane. And instead of deadly bros, there are a whole bunch of tributes out to kill us… Yup, totally like Amnesia!"

They were both on either side of the cave, exploring as much as possible to learn whatever they could. This honestly wasn't much, seeing how the cave's sole purpose was to house the horn of the Cornucopia.

Walker stomped, mildly frustrated, on a set of broken arrows. "Okay fine, maybe not so much. But, you know, the atmosphere and stuff is still sorta similar," he said, "I wonder why the Careers left this place, though."

The black-haired woman smirked, momentarily pausing her search. "Well, I have a theory about that but I don't know if it's true. You see, Walker, when the Careers left the cave, there were only three of them. We saw the girl leave the cave too yesterday right before it rained, right? She must have run away from them for some reason."

He nodded. "Yup. Wait, I think I know where this is going! They went after her. Is that what you're thinking? There's no other plausible reason as to why they'd suddenly up and away like that."

It was her turn to nod. "Exactly. I also happened to remember the names of the other tributes. The ugly Career who swung maces around during training was Ran. I know there were two friends from District One. The girl we saw leave the cave earlier today was Anri Sonohara. I recall her having short black hair. They could have gone to kill her or something!"

"That makes sense," the blond answered, crossing his arms as he turned to look at her. "However, why do you think she'd leave? Wouldn't it be a better explanation if she went out to hunt for food or kill other tributes, and then got lost or killed? After that, the others must have left as well to look for her. She's still a Career."

Erika shook her head, worried. "I don't know… I just have a feeling she's a good person who wanted to get away from the other three. She didn't seem bloodthirsty during training or conceited during the interviews."

She looked up as Walker laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. He grinned cheerfully. "You know what? I DON'T CAAAREEE. Well, in a milder tone, that's the least of our worries. I'd prefer it if we focused on getting out of this cave. Neither the Careers nor Anri can do anything to us as long as we're stuck here."

"Right," she laughed, holding his hand as they set up their sleeping bags. "We might actually even win the Games just by staying here! Besides, we have Pikachu Powaaa!"

Neither of them mentioned the possibility of killing each other.


The sun was starting to set and the temperature was getting colder. Colors of orange and pink and red splashed across the sky like paint and the tall rocky landscape of the mountain covered the purple clouds. No one would have expected such tragedy and bloodshed happening on the mountain. It was too perfect a picture.

That was all Masaomi could think about as he miserably trudged on the stony path, taking the rear of the group. In the Hunger Games, everything was so fucking ironic. People fell in love and killed each other, protected each other and murdered together, cursed profusely and laughed happily, foraged and got hurt, lived and died.

The place seemed to be looking pretty just to spite them all.

Mikado and Anri walked ahead of their blond friend, talking softly as they clutched onto their sorry excuse of bandages and searched anxiously for any form of shelter available.

The landslide yesterday really took a toll on them all. Mikado wasn't able to walk for hours and Anri had a concussion that seemed to have caused her lots of pain, plus several injuries. Masaomi was glad neither of them died, but soon enough, the two had started to treat him like a third wheel of sorts, talking to each other with an obvious intent of sparking up a relationship.

This made Masaomi feel left out- almost envious of the two. He missed Saki. He missed her so much that it hurt to see other people get their happy endings (even in the fucking Hunger Games), like Mikado and Anri, and even Careers like Vorona and Slon. They even had the chance to spend their last moments together! What did he ever do to have to suffer this punishment? It was ironic indeed.

"Mikado!" Anri's voice alerted him from his thoughts.

"I'm fine," came the shy boy's reply as he lightly smiled at his two friends. He seemed to have almost fallen over, "I just almost tripped over something. It's been getting really grassy around this area so it's been hard to see what to step on…" He bended over to pick up the object of his almost fall.

Anri tilted her head, confused, as Mikado held up a sheath of arrows. "Arrows? Why are there arrows here?"

The three of them immediately looked around them, alerted by the fact that someone could still be nearby. Masaomi shook his head. "No one's here. There's not even a single sound except for us. Who could have dropped that, though?"

Mikado frowned. "If there are arrows, then there has to be a bow." He went off further downhill, looking down at the ground to look for the so-called bow. Anri and Masaomi exchanged confused glances as they followed suit. A few seconds passed as the sounds of them pushing away long stalks of grass echoed around the area.

Anri's voice resounded. "There's a trail of blood over here. You think the cannon a while ago was meant for whoever died in this place? Well, there were two cannons a while ago…"

"That's possible," Masaomi mumbled, still searching.

"I found it!" Mikado held up a dark brown bow. "We have bow and arrows now. The more weapons, the better. Besides, it'd be easier to hunt for game using these, right?"

Masaomi raised an eyebrow. "I hate to break it to you, friend, but I don't know how to use a bow. I think Miss Big Boobies over here doesn't know either, since she prefers swor-"

"Wh-what did you just call me?" the girl asked, mildly bewildered. "I don't-"

"I know the basics of archery. Remember the first two days of training? I worked on that station the whole time and I think I can handle it," Mikado interrupted impatiently, the dark look coming over his eyes again. "At least, I did a better job with bow and arrows rather than knives and daggers when I trained…"

The blond merely chuckled. "Whatever you say, 'Kado."

Suddenly, before the bow and arrow-wielding boy could answer, another voice joined in the air.

"Try using that against me, then, why don't you?"

It was Ran Izumii. Anri growled angrily, instantly swiping at him with her sword and missing as he evaded. Masaomi turned and ducked the mad Career tribute's swing at him, instead slashing at his arm with a dagger. The three engaged in intense combat while Mikado struggled to fix the bow.

One on the left leg. One on the right leg. The other only missed Ran Izumii's heart by a few inches, hitting his shoulder instead. Arrows swiftly hit Ran's body one after the other. Mikado smirked.

"FUCK YOOOUUU!" The man screamed furiously as he fell.

Mikado grinned at the fallen Career, grabbed Anri, and practically threw her behind him protectively. He didn't lower his bow, hesitating as he aimed his loaded arrow right at the Career's heart.

Ran laughed hysterically, looking like a bloodied rag doll on the ground with three arrows sticking out of his body and eyes widened in utter joy. He laughed and laughed and laughed. The three paled as they looked at him and gripped their weapons tightly, preparing to do away with him one way or another.

He raised up his hand, which tightly clutched a cylinder- no, a bomb. A small one, but nevertheless, one that could cause some damage.

"Slon dead… Vorona left… Fuck this place! Shoot me, bastards, why don't you? Do that… And I'll activate this bomb right here and now. If I die, then you're fucking dying with me," he said softly, trying and failing to sit up. His arm, however, was perfectly capable of throwing an activated bomb at them. "Either way, I'd throw this thing at you and you know that. Come on, cowards. If you kill me, I'll fucking kill you too. It's a favor, isn't it? DO IT!"

A minute passed by. "For the Dollars and for Panem," Mikado whispered quietly. He knew the whole nation could still hear him, including his own gang members, the Capitol, and President Snow. His words- his last words- would cause rebellion. There was no turning back.

Besides, he and his friends would be dead and safe by the time the Games ended.

Several things happened at once. He shot the arrow at Ran's bloody body, but felt both Masaomi and Anri desperately push his aim away. The arrow briefly soared through the air and fell down to surrender to gravity as it passed the cylindrical bomb. It lodged itself into the ground next to Ran with a thump.

A click activated the bomb and Ran threw it at them with all his might.

Anri could only let out a small "no!", her hands holding both her friends' hands as she closed her eyes and waited for impact. Why did Mikado give up that easily? They were going to find a way! They were going to survive somehow past all the challenges the Games had to offer… And what then?

Out of the blue, a new voice muttered hoarsely right next to her ear. "Fighting… Not good."

It was neither Mikado, Masaomi, nor Ran's

Boom! Splat! A wet and thick liquid splattered onto her face, her clothes, and her body. Was it blood? She couldn't help but feel confused when the explosion resounded throughout the mountain and she felt herself alive, whole, and still clutching her friends nervously.

The cannon boomed.

Curious, her eyes opened and a gruesome sight made her gasp in shock.

The body of a tribute was decapitated on the ground before them. Only half of the head was distinguishable from the rest of the grotesque mess. The limbs were merely jagged stumps of muscle and vein poking out of the torso. Pieces of the red-stained, tan skin were littered here and there on the ground around the corpse.

The misshapen bomb was in the mangled remains of what seemed to be the hand of the tribute, bone and tissue looking as one.

Ran, covered head to toe in the blood of the unknown man, looked as shocked as the three of them. He pulled away the arrows from his body and half-ran, half-stumbled away from the scene in utter bewilderment.

The three teens motionlessly stared at the body, not bothering to stop the damned Career due to the shock of the fact that someone had saved them from death. Someone they could barely even recognize anymore. The red sky caused by the sunset matched the color of the blood on the ground and on the trees and on their clothes.

The man's blood had splattered everywhere.

Masaomi bravely wiped the blood from his face and stepped forward to fix the awkward placing of the limbs.

It still didn't look like a decent corpse by the time he was done. Several body parts were missing, like fingers, toes, and an eye. The person was extremely tall, probably as tall as Shizuo, but had darker skin. Anri felt tears slowly falling down her face and she sobbed, turning away from the scene. The voice of the tribute whispering in her ear echoed throughout her brain, taunting her.

Fighting… Not good.

Whose voice was it? Who was their sudden savior?

Mikado couldn't bear to even put his arms around Anri comfortingly or join Masaomi as he said a short mumble of goodbye to the tribute. He didn't move when the metal claw retrieved the person's body, bit by bloody bit. He couldn't say anything when Anri asked him if he was okay.

He backtracked to sort out his thoughts. The unknown tribute caught the bomb, protecting them from it. The bomb was thrown by Ran, who activated the bomb because Mikado had shot an arrow at him. He decided to shoot as a sign to the Capitol and the rest of Panem that he did have the power to go against fate and do what he wanted, which was to quickly end things for him, Masaomi, and Anri, and also to rid the world of Ran.

For the Dollars and for Panem… He mentioned the Dollars for the world to hear, thinking his life would end.

He and his friends were still miraculously alive due to the nameless tribute's sacrifice.

He failed to kill Ran Izumii, who was running loose on the mountain.

He was in deep shit.


I REFRESHED THE POLL AGAIN. VOTE FOR THE TRIBUTES ON MY PROFILE. (Or else I won't update)

Sushi for whoever guesses the identity of the unknown person who saved the three. I gave hints here and there. :(

Brofist to those who got the light PewDiePie references during Erika and Walker's scene! XD