District Twelve's Chock Roach (18)
12:46PM
The pain in my arms had mostly disappeared and I was feeling almost like normal again.
Normal in all the essence of someone from the Seam of District Twelve could be. I was hungry, but wasn't starving, yet, and I had no idea what to do but the most basic of instinct, survive. Survive and hope that I don't meet up with that District Eight prick again. Really, what was that guy's problem? The way he talked to me like he was some kind of higher being than I was because of the colour of my skin. That was all kinds of fucked up, because even those from the Merchant section of District Twelve didn't believe the things that he believed.
District Eight must not be very strict, otherwise they must believe in white superiority, because I remember one little girl saying something to a fellow coal miner. It was a harmless question, yet the peacekeepers whipped her bad because they considered it a foul comment.
She was, like, four or something, and had never been out of the Merchant section of District Twelve, and curious at that. How was she supposed to know if we had turned this colour because we may or may not of absorbed all that coal dust we extracted from the earth?
Honestly, I could see how that would put off some people, but she didn't mean any harm by it.
As bad as that was, the retribution the rebels did to that peacekeeper was even worse. That guy had been whipped in the back so many times that we saw the faded brown colour of his spine and shoulder blades, the meat beneath his flesh bloody, raw, and being eaten by the flies. His tongue had been sliced in half to resemble one like a snake's. His eye sockets had became hollow black pits that the bugs crawled in and out of. And his chest had the word; Justice, carved in it. His body was hanging from the same whipping post as that girl had been whipped.
I felt bad for the girl, felt worse for her family when the peacekeepers kicked their door down and started to question them harshly. One peacekeeper had shouted so loud that some of the conversation could be heard in the outskirts of the Merchant section. It became huge news in the district.
So violence, hunger, and seeing death were the norm for District Twelve, but hearing someone claim such superiority over another human being like that guy from Eight had done, not normal.
Flicking another beetle into my mouth and crushing it's shell with my teeth, I let the gooey insides slide across my tongue as I thought of the war between the peacekeepers and the rebels. A huge cycle of revenge that started for one reason or the next. Usually the rebel's fault.
The peacekeepers were just doing their jobs, protecting us, making sure that trouble wasn't brewing. Even though I didn't like some of their methods, I liked the peacekeepers more than the rebels. The peacekeepers only bothered you if you gave them a reason to. The rebels didn't seem to need a reason, or they went looking for reasons to justify their actions.
Violence, must always be solved by violence, that's how the rebels seemed to think. The more violent, the more cruel we are the peacekeepers, the more we'll demoralize them and the more we'll make them want to run away. What a bunch of bullshit if I ever heard it.
They didn't need to use violence, they could try to use non-violent means. No good ones came to mind at the moment, but with all the ways they think of harming people, you'd think that they could think of ways to be humane.
I didn't like to be violent, and as such, I kept my fighter friends, Ash and Piper, out of fights when I could. Talking down those that wanted a fight, one way or another, even if it meant giving them money or doing them favors, or something else. My friends said that I was selling my pride, but at least we weren't beating our own district into the ground more than we already were. If I, an ordinary kid, could stop dozens of pointless fights with nothing more than words, couldn't something be done about this damn war?
I had tried before. Tried to suggest to a rebel that there had to be other ways to get the Capitol's attention, but they said the only way to get the Capitol to declare District Twelve's independence was through hard work, dead peacekeepers, and disrupting the Capitol's way of life.
And look at how well that made the rest of us. People in the Seam living in harsh conditions and fighting for survival in more ways than one. Tough jobs that demanded loads of work for little pay, trying to get enough food to live, discouraging people from robbing you for what little you had. What did the rebels ever give us besides demands for supplies and bodies to die for their cause?
I hadn't liked the rebels at anytime of my life, but what they did to gain the Capitol's attention that one day really made me wish that the peacekeepers would stop them. It made me feel something I didn't like rise within me, and it burned brighter than ever before.
Spitting out the tough shell fragments of the beetle, I detected the pungent smell of something foul. It smelt of smoke, but not just the kind that came from a fire. No. It was the kind that came in the form of a certain kind of animal being burned.
It was some kind of bird or other small creature.
With no wind blowing about, I knew that someone had to be close for me to be able to detect that filth. Dropping the last few bugs into my mouth, I chewed them up before swallowing them, shells and all.
I didn't know what I was going to see, so I gripped my steel pole tight and thought of what the best course of action would be. A part of me wanted to run, knowing that there were people that would like nothing more than to turn me into another victim of the Hunger Games, but another part of me knew that there were people that weren't entirely like that. That they were just scared people, like me. Kids that weren't all that bad.
It was almost instantly after I gripped my weapon tightly that I spotted a ruined structure. Made of aged concrete that hadn't yet fallen to the elements, it looked like the perfect place for someone to hole up in. It wasn't too big, yet it wasn't too small. Bigger than a house that's for sure, but not overly. The windows were holes that had formed in the walls.
As quietly as I could, I snuck up to the building and peeked in through one of the windows. It didn't see anyone, but inside the building I piles of ruined concrete blocks, sunlight shining into part of the building, allow the thick dust to show itself off, and other bits of wasted concrete. But as I looked more, I spotted a trail of smoke coming from the center of the single room. From there, I spotted a pile of half charred pieces of wood with a stand made of two metal boxes on each side of the blackened timber. Laying across those boxes was a long, shiny stick with a black lump in the center.
Was that the thing that I had smelt?
And near the fire pit. Was that blood?
What had happened here and where was the-
Wait... There was another smell that was even more foul than that of a burnt small animal. I knew that smell. It was that of a certain type of dried plant that had been shredded and rolled. Tobacco.
It was close, I could smell it now, it had been mixed in with the remnants of the fire smoke and the stench of burnt animal. It was close, but where was it coming from? If I could find it's source, I could probably find the owner of the fire and find out what happened here. Assuming it wasn't the aggressor that was still alive. A cannon had fired just earlier after all.
Scanning the room for a body when I felt something grab my hair and my nose exploded with pain. I couldn't help but yell out in pain and surprise before I thrashed around wildly, wanting to hit whatever had grabbed me.
Luckily, I had someone gasp in pain when I felt my pipe hit something fleshy. They didn't release my head, but it gave me enough time to think, and I did the first and only things that came to my mind. I gave out a powerful war cry before I leaped over the bottom of the building's window with the grace of someone having a convulsion.
I had fallen off the window and onto the hard ground inside the building, my hair nearly getting ripped out, when I felt something hard and pointed jab me in the right wrist some hard that I thought it was going to skewer the limb. I ended up dropping my weapon, but I was on one knee, and I lunged my head forward, striking them right in the chest.
Air rushed out of their lungs before I slammed both my fists into their sides, causing a weapon to clang on the hard floor. I repeated that attack until I felt a hard, rounded bone slam into my face. Another wave of pain exploded in my face before it was shoved backwards, and the back of my skull felt the wave of agony my face had just experienced.
Whoever this was was a better fighter than the boy from Eight had been since they could actually fight back.
I managed to see colours instead of blurs for the first time since I first had my faced slammed into the window hole before I felt a hard kick to the ribs. I gasp out before I blocked the next attack, grabbing their foot and twisting it hard. They twirled awkwardly in the air before they landed on their face, facing away from me. And that's when the world turned black for a split second as an explosion detonated in my entire face. They had kicked me so hard that I tasted sick metallic liquid in my mouth.
Even though I was blinded by a display of exploding colours, I got to my feet as quickly as I could, desperate to end this fight as quickly as possible. They missed with their next kick, and I used this opportunity, and they momentum, to move my hands from their foot to their leg and swing them into the wall. I was rewarded with a thwak, and I did not feel pleased with myself.
Dropping the injured person, I back away and shook my head vigorously to get rid of the flashing colours. There was a groan from my opponent, and from the sounds they were making, they were rapidly getting up.
My vision was clear enough to see where they were, and not wanting them to get up before my vision was completely healed, I kicked them in the gut, causing them to lose all the air they had in them and make the collapse like a bag of coal.
"Stay down if you know what's good for you," I threatened. "I don't want to fight you."
They then started to cough, but oddly, it sounded like laughter. It confused me. After everything I had done to them, they were laughing? I had actually hurt them, and they were laughing? What was there to laugh about?
"Then you don't," a cough occurred. "Belong here." A rough, female voice chuckled. And I recognized that voice.
"Alaula?" I asked. That was when her laughter stopped.
"How-" she coughed harshly several more times. "How do you know my name?"
I knelled down beside her and answered.
"Everyone in Twelve knows who you are. You're one of our medics. And I've come to the clinic before. I'm Chock. Chock Roach."
"Is that stupid name supposed to mean something to me?" Alaula asked.
"I was part of the riot a couple years back. You commented on my stupid name back then as well." I was not proud of that riot and what it had done. If I could take my actions back, I would in an instant. It had not been worth it.
"I remember the riot," she snarled, barring her teeth and her eyebrows coming together. "You people drained my parents and I of supplies, made us work thirty six hour shifts with only an hour of sleep in between. Even with what volunteers we had, all you people did was bitch and moan and complain. We saved as many as we could, helped as much as we could, DID what we could, but it's never enough for you people, is it?" I was scared, but more confused. I did not know what was going on. All I remember is Alaula helping me through my pain and her commenting on my name when I told her. She had been kind to me... Well, as kind as she could be.
"What?" I asked stupidly.
"Course you wouldn't understand." Alaula growled. I sighed, not knowing what else to do.
"I'm sorry for what you had to go through," I told her honestly. "But I'm sure that we can help each other through this. We're district partners after all." That was when my district partner spat out a mixture of blood and saliva.
"So you can leech off me again? And besides, your with the rebels, why would I want to help you?"
"I'm not with the rebels." I told her, thinking of how much I hated the rebels myself. "And besides, I doubt you can last very long out here on your own."
"Yeah, because you can really hold your own seizure boy." She commented with heavy sarcasm as she stood up and brushed herself off. She then shoved past me and picked up her weapon, which I could now see was a rebar pole. "Answer me this; How do you plan on winning?"
I shrugged my shoulders, and told her my honest plan.
"Survive off the land and only fight when I have to."
"And when do you have to fight?" She asked, purposely extending the words.
"Self defense." I declared, to which she blinked once and turned around.
"Bye." She said without hesitation, which shocked me. How could she do that so easily?
"Wait," I called to her, running up to her, grabbing my weapon along the way. "Why?" Without turning to face me, she replied.
"You and I aren't a good fit. You're too soft."
"Too soft?" I asked in shock. "Too soft? Did you not see what I did to you just a minute ago?"
"Felt it," she deadpanned. "But your strategy is too idealistic. It's fucking bullshit, and you should just do us all a favor and jump from the highest structure you can find, and save all of us a lot of trouble." I just stared at her, how could she even say that? And how could she dismiss me so quickly? She didn't even know me all that well. How could she make that kind of judgement?
"Oh come on," I pleaded. I did not want to be out there alone. Two people together were better than one. "You can't be serious. Come on, think this through. You won't last long out here on your own. Just imagine-"
All right, fine," the medic sighed heavily. "If you win, what would you do with the earnings?" You know what, I've never thought of what I'd do with the money if I won the Hunger Games. I've always just accepted my life and how I could make it better by my own means. I didn't need money to be happy. Sure it would make things more comfortable, maybe, but I had seen what happened to the victors in the other districts. And the two most recent victors here. Though recent is twenty and thirty years ago they had won their victory. I had heard the stories. They had aged rapidly, addicted to alcohol and drugs. Lived a life with more money than most of us could even dream of, and yet, they had been miserable. One died of drug overdose, another by suicide.
Money didn't always make things better, but it could help people if you spent it smartly.
And it couldn't be a one time investment that lasted only as long as my money came in. And it couldn't be used improperly. It had to be something solid.
"I'd to it to help the people of the district," I said, thinking about how many people were suffering from the war between the rebels and the peacekeepers. "Improve the district bit by bit. Bring in a steady trading system or something where people can not just get jobs, but expand them as well. Create a better quality of life in the district. The rebels are rebelling because of a crappy situation in a crappy place after all."
"Ha," Alaula laughed. "You really think that it's going to be that easy?" I didn't get a chance to answer before she cut me off. "Whatever, good enough, I respect that." I then heard the snapping of small bones, and looked towards the sound and saw that she had snapped a burnt rat in half. Then I saw the inside of the rat, and saw that it was dry, but cooked well. Alaula handed me half before she peeled away the fur. "Allies. For now."
I smiled at her as I peeled the fur off my rat.
"To the death." And speaking of death, I looked at her and her clothes. A dirty dark grey shirt and brown cargo pants, and saw that there wasn't any blood on it. But then I looked at her weapon, and saw that it had some sort of gooey substance mixed with blood on the tip of it. "Did you kill the person here?" I asked, thinking of the abandoned and burned food we were eating and the blood I had spotted earlier.
"No," she answered as she bit into her rat. "I followed a blood trail that lead to here."
"Then what's with the stuff on your rod?"
"Oh that?" She calmly said. "I put someone out of their misery. Not the person here mind you, but probably the person who had retreated from here." How she could calmly state that she had killed someone was chilling to think about.
District Five's Alaria Grindetti (18)
12:51PM
There were those that didn't appreciate art, and some of those people were the people that had sent me into this god damn arena.
It couldn't just be a coincidence that I was thrust into his game without a reaping, without a pre-game charade of tours and interviews, it just couldn't. I mean, if the Capitol had any kind of brain power, which those in charge probably had half of one, they would of known that I would of tried to put them in a bad light. So those of them that had a brain, choose to kidnap me and throw me into the arena without going through that spectacle.
After all, what was the point of showing us off to the Capitol? It wasn't that they were showing us off, it was to show themselves off. To show that they lived in the riches while we lived in the shit holes we called home.
Sure my family was better off than most of those that resided in District Five, but even then, we were nothing compared to the Capitol that could literally burn money in their fire places for heat and would still have plenty to spare. So it wasn't just to tell themselves that they were better than us, but it was to also tell us just how low our lives were compared to them.
And this arena seemed to want to drive this point home. A ruined city of broken buildings for ruined people that they could break like cheap toys and not even bother to repair.
If I were in the Capitol, I would have loved to set the place ablaze, and that's probably another reason they didn't reap me.
They had taken me in the middle of the night, after I had confronted my so called 'friends' and went off to create some more art. Everything became black soon after that. Next thing I know, I was in the arena.
I hadn't known it at first, but it was the only thing that made sense, since there were no parts of District Five that looked quite like this place. The idea only solidified when I heard a cannon go off.
There was plenty of time to think about what had happened, and while I had a few ideas, there was one that kept on coming back to me. Xavia and Porter had been sent by my mom, and they were the ones guiding the peacekeepers to me. They'd be the distraction, and while my focus was on them, the peacekeepers would hide and wait for me to come to them.
But it wasn't just them. Oh no. It wasn't just the three of them involved in that plan. Because of my relationship with Heryna and the actions I had done, I was hated by both the rich and the poor classes of the district.
I was hated by the poor simply because I was rich and could live a comfortable life, and I was hated by the rich because I went against their ideas of what I should of been. The rich supported the Capitol, the rich didn't get involved with the poor the way I did, especially one as rich as mine, and they definitly, didn't support the rebels. At least out in the open. There may of been some rich folks supporting them, but they were too cowardly to admit that and kept it to themselves, preferring to preserve their own skin than put their neck out to help another person.
To think that I would of been one of them if I hadn't meet Heryna. I was ashamed to think that so shallow, so selfish back then. Not as much as some other riches that I knew of, but given enough time, I might of turned into them.
Looking at my trashy clothes consisting of a blue t-shirt, black trousers, and brown shoes, I wore them with pride, knowing that I wasn't going to be just another machine that ran off of Capitol propaganda. I was a human with a brain, that had it's own thoughts and feelings, not ones that were manufactured by the Capitol.
While they could control the districts they couldn't control people like me, Heryna, and the rebels. And with this weapon in my grasp, I could make sure that they lose their control of the district once I set foot out of here.
With a lean and sleek piece of wood in the shape of a long and thin cylinder, this was light enough to swing around near effortlessly, yet solid enough to potentially deliver serious damage. Coiled around it were loops of razor wire. Together, they made a devastating weapon that could not only crack a person's skull open, but also shred their face apart.
I would of liked something like a bow, because then I wouldn't need to get up close and personal with those that threatened me. One shot to the chest and their lungs would be drowning in blood. And I wouldn't receive a scratch.
Well, If I do manage to find one, I knew that I'd take it in an instant.
But for now, this face shredder would do, and I had a perfect testing victim for it.
In front of me was a guy with a duffle bag, already injured, from the way he'd avoid placing the bag over his lower back, preferring that it were on one side or the other. And not only that, but I had seen the number on his back. It was a number four, telling me that he was a career from district four. Not only that, but he was alone as well.
Careers. They were ones that practically thrived off the Capitol because of their submission to them. Thriving off the Hunger Games while the rest of us suffered because of it. It was outrageous.
Well this game was different. There was no cornucopia and everyone was separated. The careers were out of their element. Where he had gotten those supplies I do not know, but they were going to be mine soon.
Running in a large circle to a place I thought he was going to be in, I picked a hiding spot to ambush him. Now hiding under a thick sheet of ruble, I waited for the boy to approach me.
And then I saw him, but didn't attack right away. I knew that if I went for the full on frontal assault, it would end badly. I was strong for someone back in District Five, not overly so though, but that was nothing compared to someone from a career district. And from watching previous games, a non-career fighting a career on a one on one fight fairly never ended well. So in order to win, I was going to have to fight dirty.
I waited for his back to face me, and that's when I sprung into action.
Emerging from the makeshift cave, I wasted no time into thinking about my attack, I just swung at his head with all my might, wanting him to look like Heryna by the time I was done with him.
But for some ungodly reason, he ducked, and my weapon smashed into the concrete wall, causing shock waves to violently shake my arms and make me drop my weapon as I became stunned by the sheer agony it gave me.
"Really?" He shouted before he grabbed a fistful of my hair and jerked it back hard enough for me to think that a chunk of my hair might of been ripped out. I saw his fist fly towards me, and before I could attempt to block it, I was on the ground with my face burning in agony. "Do girls hate me or something?"
I was dizzy and in pain, but I wanted this career to feel a little of what it was like to live in a place where he didn't belong. A place where luxury wasn't plentiful and where things hurt.
Getting to my feet as quickly as possible, I wanted to punch the career like he had done to me, but as soon as I looked at him again, I was again, knocked to the ground, and my face burned even more. "Fucking stay down." He sharply demanded. "I don't want to fight you."
"Pussy." I spat at him.
"What?" He asked in confusion and anger.
"Just because you're a career doesn't mean that I need to be afraid of you." I then gave a chuckle. "And you don't want to fight? Why don't you? Are you too much of a coward to face a lone, non-career girl without the rest of your allies?" I mocked, knowing that they almost always hunted in their career pack.
The career glared at me before he turned towards my weapon. As he picked it up, I took my chance and charged at him. I slammed my body into him, but all it did was make him stagger back a couple of feet in surprise before he manged to get a hold of himself.
I then felt myself get shoved backwards before I saw him swung back my razor wire covered weapon and swing it at me. I tried to move away, but it ended up striking me, and the sheer torment it gave me was overwhelming. I felt the razor edges of the wire dig into my left cheekbone and tare the flesh covering it. It felt it slice through, scrapping the bone as hot blood poured from the wound. It was quickly followed by an even more intense pain before I hit the ground again.
"Does it hurt?" He asked cruelly. "Because I didn't even swing my hardest, but you girl, did."
Despite the pure agony I was experiencing, I still couldn't help but give out a light laugh.
"And that's why you're a pussy." I told him through the pain before I felt a vice wrap around my throat and lift me to my knees, then to my feet. My left eye was shut because of the pain in my cheekbone, but my right eye was glaring at the career through pure determination to not appear cowardly to this Capitol lap dog. I gripped his arms and tried to force him to stop strangling me, but his arms were like iron.
"I don't want to fucking fight you," he snarled at me, his sea green eyes looking fierce. "What part of that is so fucking hard to understand?"
I tried to pry his fingers apart, but his grip was too tight, and I was finding it getting more and more difficult to breathe as I struggled to get air. And just when the edges of my vision started to get cloudy, he released me, and I dropped to my knees and sucked in as much precious oxygen as I could.
Coughing and sputtering, I welcomed the air down my aching throat. "Leave me alone." Like all the other times other non-career kids begged to be left alone in previous games? Like how kids in non-career kids to begged to not be reaped in the Hunger Games? Only for the careers and the Capitol to spit in their faces? No, I was not granting you your wish.
I continued to coughed and placed a hand on the ground before I spoke again.
"F-" I stuttered. "Fine." I coughed twice before he smiled an smile that wasn't pleasant, but strangely not overly so.
"Thanks." And that's when I grabbed a chunk of concrete and smashed it in his face. Earning me another shot of pain in the face, this time it was the right side. I fell to the ground again. "Bitch!" He spat out before I felt a rush of pain in my gut as the air came out of me before I coughed some more. I fell face first into the ground in order to cover my gut with my hands.
I looked up at the career, determined to try to make him suffer. Right now, I couldn't do anything to the Capitol, or the peacekeepers, but I could do something to the next best thing. I was about to try and attack him again, but another body collided into the career, and the career's face and body smashed into the concrete wall before a new voice shouted out in anger.
"What do you think you're doing to that girl!"
District Nine's Harvest "Harv" Miller (17)
1:04PM
There had been screaming from both a male and a female. I didn't know what it was, but from the way that girl had screamed, I guessed that she was being attacked by someone. And from the sounds of anger from the boy, I guessed that he was the one attacking her.
There were some sick people out there that would try to take advantage of their strength, even more so now that we were in the arena. It wasn't right that the strong would terrorize the weak simply because they could. If someone weak tried to fight someone that was strong, they stood less of a chance than they did if they were on equal grounds.
It was just another reason I looked up to the rebels. They were standing up for the little people, doing what they couldn't do, and taking on the large and powerful Capitol, who had much more manpower and weapons at their disposal.
My family had been one of those kinds of people, back when they had been alive. They were helpless against the will of the Capitol, and because they couldn't stand up to the peacekeepers, they ended up dying. Why? Because the Capitol could do that.
Monty wouldn't submit to their will, so they made him. It was people like that that really made my blood boil.
And when I saw the boy, obviously bigger and taller than her, looking down at the fallen girl before she tried to fight back again. She was in pain, that I could obviously see, but she was determined to keep on fighting against the guy, and it didn't end up good for her. The guy attacked her some more, and I could tell that he was going to kill her. This was the Hunger Games after all, and he had a number four on his back, identifying him as a career.
A career that size taking on a much smaller girl was telling me that the careers, even though they were separated, still arrogantly thought that they could harass non-careers like the peacekeepers did to the normal district folks.
Well I was going to give him a wake up call, and I was going to save that girl.
I charged at him while I shouted at him before I slammed my entire body weight into him, making the side of his body slam into concrete wall. He gave out a loud grunt of pain an instant before I grabbed the back of his head and smashed it into the wall. It earned me a scream from the career, but when I pulled his head back to repeat the attack, I felt something hard and edgy hit me in the abdomen, causing me to loosen my grip before I felt hands grip my arm and spin me around.
My back hit the wall before I saw a fist come flying towards me. I tried to dodge it, but I still got hit and a blur of colours exploded in my vision.
I couldn't let him hit me again, so I charged right at him. When Monty had teached me about hand to hand combat, he had told me that people almost never expected you to run into the path of attack. As I did that, I felt myself slam into another body before I grabbed him by his clothes, and twirled sharply, and threw my opponent away with all my might. I didn't care where he went, just as long as it was away from me.
Blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear my sight, I drew my steel pipe, ready to really deal some damage to this career.
"Seriously?" The career growled before my sight became mostly clear again. The career's face was bloody in some places, and it was going to become even more so. Swinging my pipe in a swift and short arc, I was going for a quick attack to get him disorientated before I did more powerful attacks.
But that plan shattered when he blocked the attack by hitting my wrist with the back of his arm. Panicked, I lunged a leg at him, but he easily evaded it before I felt my arms being twisted. I arms twisted in such a way that in order to not break them, I spun around until my back was facing the career. I then lost my grip on my weapon before I felt serious agony wash over my entire body as my testicles seemed to explode.
I couldn't help but let out a wail before I fell to the ground and clutched my groin and roll onto my side.
I then felt another explosion in the side of my chest, and with one hand, I grabbed that as well as I cried out in pain. "I could break your god damn ribs if I really wanted to!" He shouted at me before I felt another wave of pain radiate through me. "Do you want that?" Another wave of pain before I curled up and tried to protect my front the best I could. "Do you?" I then felt a foot kick me in the back, sending a shock wave through my spine.
I couldn't let him hit me in the head, he had my weapon, and with it's weight and enough strength it could splatter my brains all over the concrete. I curled up even more into a ball to protect my head, chest, and groin, hoping to gain an opportunity to counter before I died.
Where was Mina? Why wasn't she helping me? She was strong, and right now, I needed someone to back me up. But as I got kicked in the back repeatedly, I began to think that Mina had abandoned me.
No. I don't think Mina would of done that. Sure she acted cowardly when I had first encountered her, but she could defend herself, I knew she could. But she better find her bravery soon, otherwise me and this other girl were dead.
And just like that, I heard the sound of a girl screaming out a war cry before a dull wrack occurred followed by a yell of pain. I dared to look, and saw Mina wailing at the career with her wooden board. He blocked with his arms, but it seemed to damage him more than help him.
Mina continued to swing, and each hit damaged the career more and more, and Mina was getting the upper hand. I smiled, thinking of how I had ever doubted her. We were beating a career! But then Mina missed a swing, and she overbalanced and staggered before the career pulled out something that I hadn't noticed that he had before; a sword.
As he took a swing, I yelled a warning.
"Mina, look out!"
Mina managed to look up in time, scream in fright, and have the career sword ledge itself into her board. The career then swung the sword away from Mina, ripping the board from her grip before he smashed the board onto the concrete wall, tearing it in two.
Mina then looked terrified as she didn't even look like she was trying anymore. The career sheathed his sword before he started to walk towards Mina. Mina backed away, but the career continued to go towards her.
I needed to help Mina. I needed to! Get up Harv! I screamed to my aching body. Get up damn you!
"Hey! Our fight's not over!" A female voice called out before the girl I was trying to save leaped onto the career and held him in a chock hold.
"Arah!" The career cried out in fury. "Leave me alone bitch!" He then wasted no time biting the girl in the arm, earning a scream from the girl, causing her to let go, right before Mina uppercut him, hard. The career lost his footing and crashed down beside me as a stream of blood splashed onto the concrete.
I then pushed past the intense agony and rolled on top of him before I started my beat down. Slamming my right fist into his face, feeling knuckles scrape against bone with every hit. It hurt my fist, but I bet it hurt the girl he had hit even more.
"How does it feel!" I asked him as I continued to hit him. Bits of his face were starting to open up by now. "How does it feel to be on the other side!"
I then felt myself being rolled over, and before I knew it, I was the one on the bottom of the mount. The career then grabbed the front of my shirt and forced me to my feet before he grabbed my right arm and turned it in such a way that it made me turn away from him and had my arm locked behind my back.
I did what Monty had taught me, and tried to slam the back of my head into his face, but he managed to dodge it, and then there was a wooden spike in front of my throat. I stopped resisting, knowing that if I moved in anyway, it was going into my neck.
"Step away!" The career demanded as he faced the two girls. "Right fucking now! Or I'll end him and you two with my sword!" The two girls, especially Mina, looked worried. The new girl glared and seemed to want to rush the career, but because I was in the way, she was holding out.
"What-" Mina stuttered in fright. "What do you want from us?"
"I want you two to back off, leave me alone, and let me take him with me." The career answered.
"You can't just take him." Mina told him.
"The hell I can't," the career countered as he pressed the spike onto my neck. I pulled my head away, but he continued to apply pressure on my neck. "I'm the one in control right now."
"I know," Mina told him smoothly. "All I'm asking is that we get him back. And you'll want to give him back, or else we'll follow your trail and find you before killing you in your sleep all in the name of revenge."
A stare off between the two girls and the career came about, along with tense silence. I didn't know how this was going to play out, because it seemed that the career was actually thinking about what he was going to do. It worried me. I hoped that I'd be able to get out of this alive. So many thoughts ran through my mind.
"I'm taking him," the career told the girls. Mina looked like she was going to protest, but the career interjected. "But I'll return him to you when I'm a good distance away. All that I ask is that you don't follow me."
"How will we know where he is then?" Mina asked.
"Don't worry," the career answered as he started to back away. "You'll know."
I then began to be forced back with the career as he continued to hold my life in his hand. I wasn't going to try anything brave, because then I'd just be dead.
As we walked, I couldn't help but think that the three of us had lost to a single career. Was this how the rebels felt when fighting the peacekeepers? I suddenly got even more respect for them. They had such a hard job, fighting for us and all.
The career took me back a fair distance before we went up a ruble hill. I saw the two girls, still in the same position they had been in when we were departed by force. When we reached the top of the junk pile, I could see a fair distance in the horizon. The sun was shining brightly and plenty of the city's devastation was to be seen. It was kind of beautiful in a dreadful kind of way.
The sun shining over the place. That probably what made it pretty to look at. "You must think of yourself as some kind of fucking hero." The boy hissed at me. "Me, the big bad career attacking a princess waiting for her asshole prince to rescue her. Well let me tell you something, that's not what fucking happened. I was going to let her go, but she kept on attacking me. In fact, that bitch attacked me first. And then you had to had to jump in and attack me as well." He then spat some blood on the side of my face, but I didn't dare wipe it off.
And why was he telling me this? Was it because he wanted me to think that he was in the right before I died. Was it to convince himself that he was in the right? "So I'm going to tell you to do one thing for me." He growled in my ear. I couldn't help but swallow a lump in my throat as I felt the thick splinter of wood against my throat.
"What?" I asked as bravely as I could, not wanting to appear as a coward towards the career.
All of a sudden, I felt something gently hit my shins before the career moved his hands away from me. And then, as sudden as thunder, I felt myself getting shoved forward. I tripped over the thing in front of my shins and screamed out in fright as I started to tumble down the mountain of ruble.
"Have a nice trip!" He yelled to me in a jokingly matter before laughing as I painfully hit what seemed to be everything with a blunt point on every part of my body.
It felt like forever before I managed to stop rolling down, and by that time, my entire body was in pure agony. I couldn't even move, and I'm pretty sure I tasted blood in my mouth. I gave out a mighty groan before I heard Mina's voice.
"Harvest!" She cried out in concern. "You all right?" I gave out a groan in response. At least they were both safe. "Yeah, well, we all feel that way." Not as much as I do, I thought. I didn't want to move from this spot for, like, hours. This was worse than getting beaten by Monty during training. Much, much worse. "I've got some good news though," Mina continued. "This girl, Alaria, she said that she'd like to ally with us as a thank you for saving her."
Great, another ally, this was looking up. Not by much, but it was looking up.
I gave a weak groan and struggled to give a thumbs up before I collapsed back into the ground.
A/N: Well, here it is, your last update until maybe a little before September. It's not the epic next chapter that I really want to write, but it's something to look forward to.
Not getting as many reviews as before, am I doing something wrong?
Anyway, I hope you all have a good summer, I know I won't. LOL, just kidding, I don't know if I will or not. It'll probably have its moments though.
If you want to read other things by me as you wait, I recommend that you read:
#1: Shattered Souls. My one and only fully complete multi-chapter fanfic. A SYOT nearly 300,000 words long and the fic I'm the most proud of simply because I finished it. Contains mature subject matter, rated M for a reason.
#2: Shades of Normality. A slow(ish) paced story of twenty four mentally ill teenagers. It's not completed, hasn't even reached the arena yet, but I'm doing it more for the characters and the story than just the violence. Not a SYOT as all the characters are my creation. Even out of the arena, it'll contain mature subject matter.
#3: Infamous Games. One chapter away from being complete, it shows games that are forever remembered by the Capitol. People seem to really enjoy the torture chapter for some sadistic reason.
#4: Consequences of Survival. Not a Hunger Games fic, but if you enjoy zombies, it has it. Kind of. They're more like the rage zombies from 28 days later than anything else. It's still in it's early stages, and slow paced, so be warned of that.
Now that that bit of narcissism is (mostly) over, here's a question for you guys: What are your plans for the summer?