Author's Note:
Again, I apologize for the late update AND the short chapter. Please don't kill me. I had other authorly business to take care of. :D
Disclaimer: I do not own the truly awesome universe that is the Hunger Games. (By the way, is anyone going to the movie opening night? Are you going to dress up? MARCH 24 IS ALMOST UPON US PEOPLE.)
DISSEA ONYX was doing a headcount.
It was raining and she was already in a bad mood. They had created a shelter inside the cornucopia, but unfortunately, the temperature seemed to drop every minute and Sparks had dropped the firewood in the fight, the idiot.
"…three, four, five. Where's the other girl?"
Dissea was staring at Peleus, the only other girl. She was a skinny, slightly skittish looking kid but for some reason, she had the strength to carry a spear around.
Peleus shrugged, rolling her thin shoulders. "I'm not her babysitter."
Dissea pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, whatever. She's not our problem."
Suddenly, Dissea smelled something smelly. Like rotten cheese and cow manure. She coughed and tried to muffle the hideous stench with the collar of her shirt.
She saw similar reactions in her fellow allies.
"Jeez, who's the idiot that farted?" Sparks moaned into his sleeve.
"Alright, did anyone have beans today?" Crete coughed out.
Mac's usually expressionless face was scrunched up with disgust. Peleus pinched her nose and looked like she was about to die.
Various words of rejection were exchanged, the closed walls of the cornucopia amplifying voices.
Dissea stood up. "That's it, I prefer rain over you lot."
She stepped outside. Flipping on her hood, she found a big cardboard box and crawled inside, trying to ignore the rain. The icy cold water still penetrated through the flimsy material, but it was better than the outside.
Every now and then, she saw the sky crack open and release lightning. It was quite scary because Dissea could hear faraway screams sometimes, but she knew the Gamemakers wouldn't deliberately attack the career camp. They were too good an entertainment source to waste.
She saw the other careers file out of the cornucopia. The stench had finally overwhelmed them. Peleus had lifted her bony self up a tree while Mac sheltered in a hollow tree, like some sort of owl. Sparks and Crete had both found massive shields in the weapons pile and had used spear shafts to create an ingenious makeshift umbrella-thing.
Suddenly, a bush rustled and parted, revealing a disheveled looking trio. There were two girls and one boy. The oldest looking girl who looked about sixteen had a broadsword and her younger allies had a knife each and they looked about fourteen.
They moved in a triangle formation, the younger girl in the front, scampering on light feet to the cornucopia, grabbing an entire sack of apples, half her height. She had no problem lifting it up on her bag and in fact grabbing another cardboard box of soggy bread.
By now, the rain had fallen so heavily that it wasn't a surprise that they hadn't seen the hiding careers. They had probably thought that the careers had gone hunting.
Dissea army-crawled out of her box, keeping herself as close to the ground as she could, which wasn't comfortable, since the rain had turned the ground into cold squelchy mud. She hid behind a box of vegetables (like anyone was going to eat them) and tried to spot Peleus and Mac in the trees. She couldn't use the special whistle because the rain was too loud so she tried to wave at her allies. She saw a branch move and found Peleus. She winked.
Corner them, Dissea mouthed.
Peleus nodded her head.
Dissea watched the trio. The boy had broken ranks and had moved to pick up some weapons. The oldest girl was now covering for both of them, but she didn't look wary.
Dissea decided this was the time to act. She tightened her hand on her club and jumped on the boy, who was closest to her. She took him down quickly with a blow to the head.
The two girls saw Dissea and their eyes widened in horror. The younger girl squeaked and dropped her loot.
"Run," the older girl told her remaining ally.
The little girl made a dash to the forest but Peleus jumped in front of her and made a swipe at her with a branch. The little girl ducked just in time and stumbled backwards, knocking against her older ally.
Mac, Crete and Sparks heard the ruckus and ran to join the fight. The careers circled them. No chance of escape.
Then, the girl with the sword did something unbelievable. She ran full speed at Crete and shoved her blade into his stomach, knocking him, along with herself, to the ground. She got up, pushing herself off Crete's writhing body.
She turned on her heel and grabbed her allies forearm, urging her to go on. They both ran away, through the opening. Mac acted fast and rugby tackled the older girl. She hit the ground, making mud fly everywhere.
The girl screeched and kicked Mac in the face. Something cracked. Mac let go of her ankle. By now, all the other careers had already jumped on to her younger ally.
The older girl was doing anything she could do protect her. Using her sword, she deflected Mac's sword and turned around to intercept Peleus's branch, yanking it out of the career's hand.
They began running.
Dissea yelled in frustration. Blinded by fury, she grabbed a knife from the ground and hurled it at the running allies.
One of them screamed and tumbled into the mud. Her yells were cut off suddenly. There were cannons.
It was the younger ally.
The older one gave an animalistic wail of grief but didn't stop running until she was out of sight.
Dissea took a swing at an empty cardboard box with her club, causing it to splinter in half. She swore. "That one shouldn't have gone away. Peleus," Dissea barked. Peleus straightened up. "You're fast, get her."
Peleus gave a slight nod and disappeared into the thick forest, hot on pursuit of the girl.
The rain hasn't stopped. To Dissea, it was a clear sign from the gamemakers that the show hasn't ended.
Dissea stalked over to the still-struggling Crete. Blood was still pouring out from his wound, staining his fingers. Even more blood trickled down his mouth.
Dissea spat at him. "Great help you've been," she said sarcastically. "You've gone and lost us a kill. Do you want to die?"
Crete's eyes filled with horror and he weakly shook his head.
Dissea knelt next to him. Her fingers searched the mud for a dagger. She found it and quietly slit Crete's throat open.
"We don't," she muttered, watching the light fade out of Crete.
The rain suddenly stopped.
Dissea heard the cannon blow just as Peleus reentered the clearing, annoyed.
"Lost the creep. I coulda sworn-" she stopped, looking at Crete. She shrugged. "Oh, that was his cannon. I was hoping the girl had fallen to a ditch and died. Ah well. Didn't think there was much hope in him anyway."
Dissea smiled. At least there was one sane person in the career camp.
Dissea suddenly heard a sickening 'shlock' noise. She turned her head to the sound and saw Sparks kneeling over the younger girl's body, holding the dagger Dissea used to kill her.
"Woah!" he exclaimed. "You got her right in the skull. Wicked."
Dissea felt pleased.
SECK REEDOM had his forehead on the window and was repeatedly banging his head on it like an infantile being.
He let out an immature sigh, watching each raindrop splatter on the ground.
Sofia watched him. "Should I be concerned?"
Seck stopped banging. He could feel a migraine and/or concussion developing. "Should you be concerned?" he repeated. "It's raining!"
"Obviously. Now get in the car. A little rain can't harm anyone. Let's go to the career's camp."
Seck started banging agan. "That's the problem," he moaned. "The plan can't work while it's raining. It's unquestionable."
Seck heard metal banging. Sofia must have closed the door.
"Now what?" she asked, irritated. She had grown used to the fact that no matter the form of persuasion, Seck will never reveal his top-secret plans.
"We wait."
"Until it stopped raining?"
"Until tomorrow."
Sofia groaned. "You're annoying, you know that?"
"Steve Jobs was annoying. He was a pure genius."
"Who's Steve Jobs?"
Seck rolled his eyes. "Your grandmother. Seriously, how many people are there in Panem named Steve? He's a guy from when Panem was still North America."
Sofia yawned. "Facinating. Absolutely fascinating."
ASH LENNOX and his group of allies finally found shelter, a long crack in a rock that opened up to a fairly large cave. It was dark, with patches of light around the area from gaps in the rock.
Ash started a small fire going and lit up the dark cave even more.
The fire cast an uneven glow around the cave. Suddenly, they were faced to face with a hundred pairs of beady eyes.
One of them let out a shrill scream, which was suddenly amplified by the stony walls and the others followed suit.
"BATS!" Van yelled.
The bats suddenly unlatched from their hanging spots and circled around the helpless tributes, clawing, biting and pushing against them.
Ash immediately reached for Ella's hand. He tried to find Van in the mass of black bodies.
"WHERE ARE YOU?" he yelled, straining to be heard over the screeching.
Ash felt a push behind him. It was Van.
The whirl of bats reached a climax and they all hit the ground together, covering their faces and ears.
As suddenly as they came, they left, filtering out from various cracks and crevices.
Ash got up and started patting himself, checking for lost body parts. He had a couple of scratches and very messy hair but he's okay.
Van had a nasty scratch on his cheek and one of his jacket sleeves was ripped. Ella was okay, except for a sprained wrist when they hit the ground.
"Crap, that's gonna hurt when I use the bow," she winced. "Plus, I think they've ripped half my hair off," she added, fussing with her hair.
"It's fine," Van said, gingerly touching his cheek. "Me on the other hand… How do I look?"
"Like someone clawed your face off," Ella replied.
Van wiped his cheek against his sleeve, leaving a trail of red. "That's not too far from the truth."
"Crap," Ash said. "Bat crap."
On the walls were piles and piles of white goo mixed in with the cold dank smell of mud. Not very appetizing. Van was daring Ash to touch it. Ash did and smudged it on Van's forehead.
Thus ensued a bat crap fight between the two boys.
Van scooped up a handful of it and chucked it at Ash, who ducked and hit Ella instead.
"Oops," he chuckled.
Ella was not amused.
Author's Note:
I shall leave you with this cliff-hanger. You can imagine what Ella does to Ash and Van.
Plus, apologies to the creators of Sofia and Seck. The next chapter will showcase them more because it will be in Sofia's point of view.
Guess who farted? :P