Well hello there... yeah I haven't updated in two months... yeah. I'm sorry, I had a really bad case of writer's block for the first bit of the chapter, and then I (counter intuitively) procrastinated with the rest of the chapter because I felt guilty about taking so long. Eeurgh...
Hopefully I'll post the next chapter in a more reasonable fashion.
Oh yeah, I'm thinking about going back and naming all these chapters with proper names, so I'm completely open to suggestions.
Anyway, here's chapter 7! I hope you guys enjoy!
"FIRE!" Ichigo called, pushing his injured legs to carry him faster. Katniss was rushing directly towards the sudden blaze, too focused on escaping from Ichigo to notice the orange light up ahead. "DAMN IT, KATNISS, FIRE!" He had to stop her. The wall of fire was gaining momentum, and if she didn't turn around soon, it would be too fast to keep ahead of without a decent lead. Abruptly, Katniss turned around, slipping on leaves as she struggled to reverse her direction. She dodged around him with a sideways leap.
"About damn time!" Ichigo shouted, kicking up debris from the forest floor as skidded against his momentum. He rebounded against the ground and sprinted after Katniss. The wall of fire was getting even faster, spreading from branch to branch and pelting Ichigo's back with heat. Fire was an adversary that Ichigo had faced before, but never like this. The fire he had battled was fire in its purest form, an unrelenting inferno of power. This fire was acrid, filling the air with hot, thick smoke that burned his eyes and seared his throat. The heat was reaching deeper now, traveling from his throat to his lungs. There was something wrong with the smoke, he was sure of it. It pulled at his senses, his concentration… even his resolve to move was slowly slipping away from his.
Damn… Zangetsu, Ichigo mentally called.
I'm here, Zangetsu's voice echoed through Ichigo's head, his usually calm voice tinged with anxiety, your inner world is… blurring.
That's what it feels like out here, Ichigo replied grimly as he ducked under a burning branch, I think it's the smoke. How long can we keep going?
I can hold our consciousness together for perhaps another thirty minutes, said Zangetsu, if you focus.
No choice, Ichigo thought back, let's do this.
"This way!" Anna urged as she stopped to make sure that the other tributes were still with her. She wasn't even sure why she was trying to help the idiots. Maybe it's the smoke, she thought with a snort. The fire had come practically out of nowhere, lighting up the forest with a brilliant shade of orange that reminded her of Ichigo's hair. The canyon had also seemingly popped up out of nowhere, and she had nearly fallen in. The bottom of the canyon long and deep, and was safe enough from the choking smoke, but not entirely from the heat. It seemed to be out of reach for the Capitol's fireballs for the moment, but Anna wasn't going to push her luck. She casted her eyes along the canyon, searching for some way to get out of their current predicament.
"Come look at this!" Anna heard a call from further down the canyon. She looked to where the boy she had mentally dubbed 'Nightmare Idiot' (she hadn't caught his name) was pointing. A hole in the canyon wall, partially covered by a boulder. "It looks like it goes pretty deep!" The boy held a hand next to the hole. Anna did the same, and she felt a slight breeze blowing from within.
"Well don't just stand there," Anna said, bracing herself against the bolder, "help me get it out of the way!" A few seconds later, the bolder fell to the side and Anna felt the breeze blowing from the tunnel and cooling her sweaty skin. She nodded to herself. She'd take a tunnel over a canyon any day. They were even less flammable, they were cool, and they could even keep Anna's group safe from the smoke if they went deep enough.
My group? Anna scoffed, what the hell am I doing? She thought as she called for the tributes to follow her and walked into the tunnel.
Flame.
Flame everywhere.
How impudent, Morris thought as he ran away from the forest fire. Wait… 'Impudent'? Was the thought that followed next, since when do I think like that? He shot a glance to his side to reassure himself that Willow was still next to him. He didn't care about anyone else, especially not that damn lover-boy baker's son. Just as long as there was willow.
They had been separated from the rest of the group when a rotting tree that had been set alight by a fireball (what the hell) and fallen to cut off the small canyon that the tributes had rushed into to avoid the rising smoke. He was partially glad that they had been cut off, because he didn't trust that District 3 girl, or anyone other than Willow, to keep from murdering him in his sleep. They were ahead of the smoke and the wind was carrying it away from the direction that he and Willow were traveling. He also continued to have the strange feeling that the fire was also out of line, and his mind kept labeling it things like impudent and rebellious. Rebellious… honestly, it was like he was going senile. He was barely into his teens, and he was already going senile. He blamed it on his lack of sleep. And the fire, which was acting rebellious.
BOOM!
The sound of a canon in the distance startled him and he turned his head behind him briefly to glance at the ever-advancing flames. One down already, huh? He ducked as a small ball of fire rushed over his head.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
Anna took a deep, ragged breath, filling her abused lungs with the cool breeze that came from deeper in to the cave.
"Does anyone have a light?" Anna called, "is everyone alright?" In hindsight, she probably should have asked the latter first. She had never been very good with people. She was answered by a chorus of ragged affirmations and a click as someone turned on a flashlight.
"I have one here," said Griffin, holding up the light. Anna took a second to cast her attention around the cave. It was a small, round corridor that couldn't have been more than six feet wide. It traveled in a straight line into the darkness. "Just one way to go, huh?" Griffin commented out loud. Anna rolled her eyes, ripping the flashlight out of his hand and starting down the tunnel.
"Keep up," she said tersely. Thirty minutes of walking later, Anna was starting to feel uneasy. The tunnel was unnaturally straight, and she still couldn't see any sign that it had an ending, other than the constant breeze.
"Anna," said Griffin from somewhere behind her, "when is this tunnel gonna end? I'm tired… and thirsty… and—"
"I don't care!" Anna yelled, turning to face the annoying boy, "so am I, and if you keep whining about it I might just kill you myself!"
"Alright, alright," Griffin said "you don't have to—"
RUUMMBBLE…
The tunnel shook around them, dislodging dust and pebbles from the ceiling.
"W-what's happening?" Griffin asked, dropping to his knees to keep his balance.
"CAVE IN! RUN!" Someone shouted from the back of the group, pushing Anna forward. She didn't have to be told twice. She sprinted as fast as she could through the tunnel. Suddenly, a large rock fell from the ceiling, hitting the flashlight in Anna's hand. Darkness filled the corridor. The light was gone. Anna kept running, reaching out her right hand to touch the side of the tunnel. She almost lost her balance when the wall she expected to find wasn't there.
"What…?"
She reached to the other side cautiously, her pace slowing only slightly, and once again her hand swiped through open air. The rumbling was subsiding now, and the pebbles that had been pelting her were coming less frequently now.
"Anna!" A voice called from somewhere behind her, "STOP!" Anna wasn't the type to listen to what other people say, but there was something in the voice that made her pause. It was damn lucky that she slowed down when she did. Her right foot slipped down, and she was just barely able to catch herself. He shin scraped a sharp edge and she scrambled backwards. She didn't dare move. Somehow, at some point in time when she was running from the cave-in, the narrow tunnel had widened into a much larger space, and now she had almost fallen down a sharp drop of indeterminate length. She fished around in the dark in search of a pebble. The one she found was about the size of her thumb, and almost as smooth. She tossed it behind her and listened. No sound came.
"Anna?" The same voice as before called, Griffin's Anna realized, a note of panic clearly audible.
"I'm here!" She called back, "don't move, there's a cliff here."
"I know, I almost fell."
"Where are the others?" Anna asked before she could stop herself. She inwardly scoffed at herself. Worrying about others when her life was in danger? Where did all her training go?
"I think everyone is ok, I told them to stop." Griffin said, "You have a light, right?"
"It broke." Anna said simply.
"It broke? How… never mind," he cut himself off, "that was mine anyway."
"Oh, yeah." Anna replied, carefully removing her backpack from her back, making sure to keep her balance. She fumbled into the zipper and opened the pack, blindly rummaging around for a flashlight. Her hand closed around a small cylinder that she assumed was the light, and she rotated it until she found the switch. She lifted the now lit flashlight and shined it around.
"Ow! Don't point that thing in my eyes, Anna." Griffin said when the light found him. Anna laughed slightly, more out of nervousness and relief than mirth. "It's not funny!" Anna stood up, ignoring the pain in her shin and helping Griffin to his feet by his collar. The rest of the group wasn't far away. And she walked over to do a quick head-count.
Eight-girl, griffin, and I make three… Didn't we have four?
"Where's nightmare idiot?"
"…Who?" Griffin asked, "Oh right… that guy." Griffin searched towards the cliff, taking the flashlight and leaving the rest to call in the dark of the tunnel. There weren't many places where the guy could be. Behind them there was nothing but rubble, blocking their way, in front there was a cliff. And there was no Nightmare Idiot in between. No one needed to voice it, they all knew. The boy was dead.
The group of survivors sat in silence in the tunnel. Death was harder to swallow when you knew the person who died. Hearing a cannon and knowing logically that someone was dead was one thing, but having talked to the person before they were gone forever, and even being saved by them was an entirely different matter. Griffin, to Anna's surprise, was the first to move.
"Come on," he said, "I have something to show you two." They followed him as he took the Flashlight and went out towards the cliff again.
"Wow…" Ellie said as Griffin casted the light around. Anna's jaw dropped. There, in the light, was the biggest building she had ever seen.
"Wow…" She agreed.
Katniss was stumbling. She, unlike Ichigo, did not have the spirit of a sword living in her head to help hold her consciousness together. Ichigo swept her up of the ground, throwing her over his shoulder.
"Let me go!" Katniss protested somewhat tiredly.
"Shut up and let me rescue you," Ichigo replied flatly, jumping over a log.
"Let me… let me…" Katniss mumbled, her consciousness slipping.
"No." Ichigo felt Katniss relax into his hold, unable to resist the smoke any longer. Ichigo's body had been hurting less and less, and he felt his agility increasing at the same time. His movements felt smoother and the world around him was slowing down. It felt good. He picked up his pace. Then he felt a new pain in his leg. It felt like it was on fire. What the hell just happened? His answer came in the form of a fireball hurtling towards his head. Ok, now this was getting ridiculous. Were the Capitol people that impatient? Couldn't they wait for longer than half an hour? He was already running away from a wall of fire, and they needed him to dodge fireballs too? Another one grazed his jacket, setting it ablaze. He shifted Katniss as he threw his jacket off before it could burn him too badly. The fireballs continued to fly at him and Katniss with alarming accuracy. And he wasn't able to avoid them all completely. There had to be somewhere he could take shelter from these fireballs. He franticly scanned the surrounding forest, searching for a way out. Then he fell and was immersed in water. He spluttered, struggling to keep both Katniss and himself above the surface. He dragged Katniss to a small part of the shore that was safely nestled under a rocky overhang. His vision was getting foggy, and his thoughts were getting less coherent.
Ichigo, said Zangetsu warningly.
I know, Ichigo cut him off, I can feel it. He set Katniss down where she wouldn't slip under the water and set himself down next to her. The last thing he saw, before whatever was in the smoke finally pulled him into unconsciousness, was a picture of a little man. He was wearing a little hat and standing on top of a pair of sandals, painted in green above him. The text below the man said:
I give you the gift of life. :)
There! Up ahead! The forest was coming to an end.
"Look!" Willow coughed.
"I see it! Hurry!" Morris wheezed back. They stumbled a good distance away from the edge of the forest before collapsing on the dusty ground. Morris rummaged in his pack, pulling out the bottle of water that he had barely had the time to fill before the group was sent packing by the forest fire.
"Here," he said, passing it to Willow. She nodded, sitting up and taking a swig before handing it back to Morris. She then proceeded to cough until tears streamed down her cheeks. Morris took a swallow of the water himself before joining willow in what felt like coughing up a lung. Morris looked back at the forest, where the fire was still burning. Then, suddenly and without warning, he felt angry. He pushed himself up to his feet and strode towards the blaze, unable to stop himself. It felt… right, somehow. Like he was waking up and finally taking the natural course of action when faced with a wall of fire.
"Know your place, childish flames!" He boomed, more loudly than he had ever thought he was able to.
VOOMP.
The bright orange flames were instantly extinguished, dying down like they were ashamed by their actions. Morris nodded, satisfied.
Wait… what? He thought, feeling weak.
Then he passed out.
Griffin cast the flashlight past the building, and Anna could hardly believe her eyes. Behind the massive structure was another one, almost exactly like it, and another one in the distance behind that one.
"Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?" Anna asked snappishly when she finished ogling.
"I thought we were having a moment of silence…" Griffin replied, trailing off at the thought of the missing tribute. Anna didn't have a response to that. Instead, she took the flashlight out of Griffin's hand, and pointed it in another direction.
"Over here," she said, "there's a ramp." The light illuminated a set of ancient, worn stairs with rusted railing that lead down into the darkness.
"Go down?" Griffin suggested. There were no objections. Anna started downwards. In addition to being very old, the stairs were very long, and very straight. Anna kept close to the rocky cliff face that they were built into. She didn't trust the decayed railing to support its own weight, let alone hers. She shined the light outwards towards the rows of massive sky-scrapers curiously. Although, she mused, they would probably be called ceiling-scrapers. Somewhat of a misnomer though. If she pointed the light downwards, she could just barely define the shape of the ground, but a flashlight really didn't put out enough light to help visibility so far away. She had taken to shining the light through the windows of the buildings as she walked past, peering in and trying to guess what the building had been used for, when the city was populated. An office… another office… what is that? A room full of phones… It helped take her mind off of her dry throat, hunger pangs, and thoughts of the Nightmare Idiot. The end of the stairs was more visible now, and the flashlight illuminated a dark covered arch built over the last twenty or so steps. The faded sign that could have once been colored a cheerful yellow read:
Welcome to Avalon, Diamond in the Rough.
In big black letters. Underneath the arch were several rusted pedestals that looked like they might have once held little bits of information about the city. Now they held nothing more than dust. They walked through the arch and into the city.
The only thing that 'Avalon' and the Capitol had in common was the size. Where the Capitol was brightly colored in candy tones, Avalon was faded and dull. The streets, which in the Capitol were filled with people draped in neon-colored, style-of-the-week clothes, were eerily empty. The slightest noise echoed through the cold expanse loudly, reminding the three how obvious they were.
"Let's go into one of these buildings, maybe find some water," Anna said, whispering involuntarily and pointing to one of the relatively smaller buildings. It wasn't improbable. She remembered some of the more well-off places selling bottled water, and if it was bottled and sealed properly, it was almost certainly safe to drink. The store she had pointed out looked like it had once been painted in a rich red color, now the paint was faded and peeling. It had a small sign hanging from a tattered awning, reading 'John's Pizza' in bold black letters. The other two nodded, following her up to the door. Anna stopped in front of the door and swallowed. There was really nothing to be afraid of, Anna told herself. Whatever people had lived in this city were long gone. There was no one inside. She fought back her nervousness, taking a firm hold of the cold doorknob and twisting. It was unlocked, and Anna pushed. It slid easily open on its hinges, that is, until it slid off of its hinges and his the ground with a loud echoing clonk. Anna winced, tensing and shooting a glance behind her. Nothing besides Ellie and Griffin. She took a breath, steading her heartbeat. The inside was a mess, tables and chairs knocked over, floor covered with bits of dusty glass. It looked like the place had been abandoned as quickly as the occupants could, to the point of ignoring everything between them and the door. Anna walked gingerly over to the counter, glass snapping under her boots. She shined her light into a little open-air refrigerator. She could have cried out in joy (She didn't, but she felt like she had it in her at the time). There, carefully lined up by some long-dead employee, were five perfectly intact water bottles. She picked one up, carefully inspecting it. It was dusty, but otherwise ok. A couple of hands reached over her shoulder each taking one for themselves.
"Nice," she heard Griffin whisper in appreciation. Then, as one, all three tributes opened their bottles and downed them. The water tasted like plastic, and it left a powdery feeling in their throats, but water was water, and they were thirsty.
"Good find," Griffin said, gasping for air.
"Yeah…" Anna trailed off, "thanks, by the way…" She mumbled quietly, regretting the words even as she said them.
"Hm?" Griffin mumbled.
"For saving me…" Anna said awkwardly. Now that she had started, she would go all the way.
"Huh?" Griffin replied, temporarily confused, "…Oh yeah. Sure… you're welcome." Anna almost wanted to strangle him. What kind of half-assed reply was that? They sat in painfully awkward silence while Ellie watched, unsure of what to do.
"Well…"
"Anyway…"
"We should get going." They both said in unison. Then Anna punched Griffin in the shoulder and walked out the open doorframe.
"Uh… Anna?" Griffin called behind her, "we still haven't checked the rest of the restaurant." Anna stopped in her tracks, cursed and re-entered the building.
Damn it, Griffin.
"Morris... what…?" Willow asked breathlessly. Morris didn't respond. "Morris?" Morris swayed, and Willow rushed forward to steady him. She arrived at his side just in time to stop him from falling backwards into the dust. "Morris!" Willow laid him down, beginning to panic as she checked his breathing. His chest was steadily rising and falling. She breathed a sigh of relief. Just sleeping.
Now what?
The fire was out (because of Morris?), but the heat and smoke hadn't dissipated yet, so the way back to the pond was blocked for now. Not that she knew the way. She dragged Morris to the unburnt edge of the clearing, looking for a place to hide while he regained consciousness. She was about to set him down in a little niche she had found when a flash of grey at the edge of her vision caught her eye.
"Stay here," she whispered, setting Morris down, before going to investigate. She pushed her way through a few low-growing branches to find herself standing in front of a small square shed made of concrete. The door was rusted through, revealing a staircase leading… downwards? Maybe a store-house of some kind, she thought. If it was, it could be incredibly useful. Like a mini Cornucopia, all to themselves. She clamped down on her overly optimistic imagination as she cautiously pushed the rusty door open. A slight breeze wafted from inside.
"What…" She murmured to herself. There was a small, plastic fold-out table standing up against one wall of the shed. It held a single flashlight and nothing else. She gingerly picked it up, fearing a trap.
Silence.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She turned the light on and pointed it down the stairs. Her eyes widened in surprise. The stairs went down. Far. So far that she couldn't see the bottom. She quietly picked her way down the stairs one level. There was a door, rusted only slightly less than the one above. She twisted the knob, back against the door, peeking inside. It was a large room, filled with short walls made out of what could have been fabric somewhere in the past. Right now, they looked like they were completely made of moss. At the sides of the room, there was glass, giving an excellent view of the dirt and roots from the outside. That was just weird. The 'shed' was looking more and more like one of the buildings in the Capitol. Except someone had decided to build it almost entirely underground. It wasn't a bad thing though. From the top, it was a small shed, surrounded by trees, inside, it was a perfect shelter from the elements. She exited the room, heading back to where she had left Morris.
This would do.
The city had turned out to be filled with hidden treasure. Plenty of stores like the one where Anna, Ellie and Griffin had found water lined the streets, and there was food to be found as well. A large amount of it had turned to dust, and some of the packaged food had gone bad as well, but there was still plenty left. With food, water, and shelter taken care of, the group of three were at a distinct advantage towards the tributes above. All Anna had to do was stay in the city, as soon as she… As soon as Griffin and Ellie were… She couldn't bring herself to finish the thought. Damnit. She couldn't believe how easily her emotions had gotten the better of her. She had never thought of the tributes (other than her fellow District 3 tributes) as really human. They had always been obstacles, in the way of her district's glory and her own family's wealth. She couldn't even put Ellie and Griffin in the category of Other Tributes, and she certainly couldn't think of them as obstacles. She cursed again. There was still time, she told herself, at least a few more days.
"Anna…" A hand fell on Anna's shoulder.
"Eek!" Anna squeaked, startled. "Y-yes?" She said, clearing her throat awkwardly.
"We're leaving." Griffin said.
"Yeah…" Griffin lead out the door, and Anna followed behind him.
"By the way, Anna," Griffin said as they walked.
"What is it?"
"…Eek?" He inquired cautiously. "Ow!" Anna picked up her pace, leaving Griffin rubbing a fresh bruise on his shoulder.
Katniss woke up feeling strangely warm. She snuggled deeper into the warmth sleepily. She opened her eyes and her view was immediately filled with orange. It wasn't fire though, which raised the question. What was it?
"Ah!" She squeaked, jumping back and blushing. It was Ichigo. He was sleeping beside her, an arm wrapped protectively around her for some reason. Wait. Why was she sleeping next to Ichigo? This question was accompanied by sudden recollection of the events that had transpired earlier. She had fallen unconscious, something about the smoke. The smoke that had been coming from the fire. The fire that she had been in the middle of when she fell unconscious. And now she was here. Laying in a pool of water, shivering, and fighting back the urge to curl back up next to Ichigo's warmth.
Alright, Katniss, she thought to herself, calm down and think about this logically. She was alive, a good thing. Surrounded by water, also a good thing. The fire was gone, another plus. Ichigo was with her… she'd come back to that one. She was hungry, that was definitely a bad thing, but she still had her pack and there was still some food left in it. Over all, the plusses outweighed the minuses. Food was manageable. She could always set a trap and catch some small game once the remainder of what was in the pack was gone. A quiet moan beside Katniss signaled that Ichigo was awake.
"Oh. You're awake already." He said. He either didn't know or didn't care about the way they had been sleeping, Katniss thought. Then she mentally slapped herself for thinking about that first. "How are you?"
"U-um…" Katniss was taken aback. Ichigo stood up, looking her over with obvious concern. Katniss felt the sudden urge to cover herself.
"F-fine," she said, folding her arms, "what about you, you're burnt." He was. In several places around his body his clothes were burnt through and his skin was blistered. Katniss cringed uncomfortably at the sight. She had always hated burns.
"Oh this?" Ichigo said, glancing at the blistered spot on his arm, "I'll be fine." What kind of resistance to pain did he have? Her own burns weren't nearly as bad and they hurt like hell, and he was ignoring his like they were nothing. "You coming?" He asked, stepping out of the pool.
"Wait," Katniss said, "what makes you think that I'll follow you?"
"Well…" Ichigo replied. She had a point. Then Katniss acted on a whim.
"Never mind, keep up." She walked briskly past a very confused Ichigo and into the charred remains of the forest.
"Oi!" Ichigo called after her, "Wait!"
"Keep up," Katniss replied, "We're going to the Cornucopia."
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