Another chapter, and this is where the daily uploads are going to stop. At this point, I'm working on my other story as well, and it seems highly unlikely that things are just going to keep up like this. I've been spoiling you guys for too long for it to be sustainable. I might be very passionate about writing, but even I can't do this all of the time.
Answer: I like I Ran (So Far Away), We Built This City, and others.
Question: Who do you think will be the victor when all is said and done? I'm genuinely, genuinely curious. I already know who this is.
Bretson was glad that he and Rey had been sponsored food. They'd been given an entire 14-inch pizza with pepperoni, as well as two cans of root beer. It might not have been the healthiest food, but they hoped that they'd be able to survive the rest of the Games with this.
As Rey was tearing into a slice of his own, he asked, "So...how long do you think we are going to stay together?"
The truth was that Bretson hadn't been giving it much thought. He supposed that, since both of them couldn't win these Games, this was an important question to ask once you were at the final ten. Would there be a good reason to split up soon? Was there any good reason to stay together?
"I just don't know, Rey. I just don't know".
"Is it because of your district partner?" the District 11 boy asked.
"No, it's not. For the record, although Cassia was kind of like a sister to me, she's dead and gone now. It's been four days since the Bloodbath, and you kind of have to accept that". He was trying not to sob while saying this.
"Sorry" Rey replied.
"It's no problem. Just don't bring her up again. Right now, we have to focus on what's going on in the arena at this moment, you know? We've got to focus on what's near to us, what matters right now. I don't know if you believe in an afterlife, but this is all that matters right now".
"That's pretty much my opinion on it as well" said Rey. "I'll figure the afterlife out when I get there".
Both of them chuckled a little at that. They could have been just two ordinary teen boys, having a good time in the woods. Of course, this was far from an ordinary situation. There was a very good chance that neither of them would live to see the next few days.
"Do you want to head over to the fall island?" Bretson asked. "I don't like all of the bugs here. I'm worried that we might get malaria or something, since there's just so many mosquitoes".
"Really, that shouldn't be an issue" Rey said. "Would the Gamemakers want to kill us by disease? No, of course not. They always love watching us off each other" he said bitterly.
"I suppose that's true" the District 6 boy replied. "Let's get out of here, though. Even if malaria's not an issue, it'd be best to avoid the Careers".
Meanwhile, the group of Careers consisting of Jenny, Sam, and Sei were on their way back to the summer island. They were going to hunt there, but little did they know that they would run into two other tributes on the coral reef.
At the same time, Bretson and Rey were approaching from the side of the summer island closest to the coral reef. This wasn't a sight they liked to see, but they knew that they were going to have to deal with these Careers before they could go on.
"You take 11, I'll take 6!" said Sam enthusiastically, raising his spear. Like a fish, he began swimming close to Bretson.
The District 6 boy held up his hammer, ready to defend. He wasn't going down without a fight.
Sei raised his sword, moving towards Rey. The District 11 boy was weaponless and totally vulnerable. At the same time, he did have use of one weapon: his body. He body-checked the District 1 boy, knocking him back into the water and onto the coral reef.
One of Sei's legs was bleeding from getting cut on the sharp coral. This didn't faze him, however. He was still going at it, swinging his sword. Eventually, he struck gold.
Not much gold, though. All Sei had managed to do was to cause a tiny gash on Rey's forehead. It looked like he had received a Hindu blessing, it was that superficial of a wound. Rey was more mobilized to start fighting back, not that he hadn't been fighting before.
"Meet me at the fall island, Rey!" Bretson yelled. "I'll see you there, let me take care of these guys first!"
Bretson's silver hammer came down, but it didn't manage to hit any of the Careers. It was a very tense battle, and the District 6 boy was pondering means of escape. Of course, that might not be possible, but he didn't want to die without at least doing one thing towards trying to live.
Eventually, he managed to land a blow to Jenny, which knocked her off of her feet. The spear didn't go through her, and she didn't seem to be hurt that badly, but it was all it took for Bretson to get a head start.
He began bolting through the water. He wasn't the best swimmer, but he'd learned a lot during his time in the Hunger Games. All he wanted to do was to get out of there and join up with Rey again. He knew that this was going to work, somehow. He'd be able to get with Rey again, and then they would try to last the rest of the Games. That was the way things were going to have to go.
"Let's go exploring" Juliana said.
"Where?" Kidra asked. "It's freezing in here!"
"You never know" the District 11 girl said. "Maybe we can find some food out here, maybe not, but you'll never know unless you try".
"I suppose that's a good philosophy" the District 5 girl replied. "Yeah, let's go looking for something".
The girls started walking northwards through the snowy forest. Eventually, they came across an area with a grove of spruce trees, behind which a tower of steam was rising. The area gave off an aura of warmth that was almost unreal.
"Is that a hot spring?" asked Juliana, pulling back the curtain of spruce.
"Indeed, I think it is" Kidra replied.
In front of them stood a thermal pool, perhaps thirty feet wide and twenty feet deep. There was no telling how hot it was. It could be the temperature of bath water, a luxury neither of them had ever experienced more than once or twice in their lives, or the temperature of lava. It could be deeper than it looked.
"Let me test it" the District 11 girl said.
Before Kidra could stop her, Juliana was lowering her big toe into the pool. "It's very nice" she said. "Let's get in".
The District 5 girl was skeptical, but she watched as the younger girl lowered her body in. Since she was wearing waterproof clothes and a life jacket, she floated easily on the surface of the water, looking very comfortable.
"Aaahhh...that does it. Get in, Kidra".
"Okay" the older girl said, getting into the water slowly. At first, it was almost painful, but once she had gotten used to the water it did indeed feel relaxing. She tried to keep as much of her body above the water as possible so as not to get overheated. If she did, she'd be pretty useless hunting later.
For a few minutes, the girls just floated there, watching the snow fall and get sizzled in the hot water. Then, Kidra said, "How long are we going to stay together? There's only ten left".
Juliana had barely considered that question. "Well, you can leave right now, if you want. I'm not going to stop you".
"You know what? I think I will" the older girl replied. She got out of the water.
"You can't be serious. I'm really enjoying my time with you" Juliana replied.
"Well, you were the one to say it first. Besides, I'm getting sick of this. I'm getting out of here".
Before Juliana could say another word, Kidra was already running away into the woods, leaving the District 11 girl soaking in the hot springs.
The afternoon wore on. Fennal was getting sick of looking around for targets. He wanted them to come to him. He wanted to make some progress towards ending the Games.
At this point, if there had been any question about his willingness to kill, it was gone now. Fennal could become a ruthless killing machine, and he wouldn't care. He was in it to win it at this point, and so was everyone else. He was going to do whatever it took in order to get to continue his life.
As he walked along a dirt path, with flowers of various colors all around him, he pondered this. When would it be a good time to simply give up on the spring island? Would it ever be a good idea to do that? The winter island was pretty brutal, for one.
Finding a chasm in the middle of the island, he saw that there was no path across it. He couldn't climb into it, it was much too far down (a distance of about fifty feet), nor would he have wanted to, thanks to what happened to be down there.
Spiked beetles, the size of dinner trays, were walking along the bottom of the pit. They were making clickety-clack noises as they did so, like an old-fashioned typewriter. It was not a pretty sight by any means, and Fennal saw no way to continue without going down there and possibly getting killed.
There was no other option. He would need to retreat, but not to the Cornucopia. From this part of the island, he couldn't see what was going on there, but he could only assume that some of the other Careers had taken over the golden horn. If so, that meant going back was suicide.
Kidra didn't look back after abandoning Juliana. She was too focused on what she had to do now; find a source of food.
She didn't think ditching her ally was going to get her that many sponsors, but she didn't know what her looks might do. She smiled at the camera, even though she was feeling no joy, quite the opposite. She had a lot of dark thoughts in her mind, mainly of the future and the age-old question of what happened when you died.
Kidra didn't want to think that way. She would survive. She had to believe that, or she wouldn't survive. It was just that. It was all about your will to live.
Okay, some of it might have been due to your own actions. Still, will to live could play an important factor.
Which was why, when Kidra saw a fox next to another patch of spruce trees, she immediately heaved a knife at it. It was a clean kill, as she had been getting better and better at this skill over the last few days. She'd just gotten her dinner for the night.
Now, even though her life was far from secure, she knew that her food supply was going to be secure, at least for tonight. Maybe tomorrow things would change, but tonight she could relax.
She decided that she'd find a place to bed down here, covering herself in pine branches, before heading to the spring island in the morning. That would be a good place to go in order to get away from Juliana, assuming that the District 11 girl wouldn't gravitate towards that environment. Kidra could only hope that that wouldn't be the case.
If it was, an awkward confrontation was just around the corner.
The hours passed very slowly for Neo. He had finally reached the summer island, where he had immediately collapsed from exhaustion. Being in the desert for hours had made him very tired indeed. He'd fallen asleep right on the beach.
During the time he was unconscious, he had a bunch of dreams involving Tyler. The old flashback he'd had last night was coming back to haunt him now. He just wished that it would go away. He wasn't in the mood for sentimentality.
If he got home, and managed to win, things would be great. He might be able to go back to school if he wanted to, much like the victor from two years ago had done. Or, he could decide to say "fuck it" and decide that education was no longer relevant. And then he'd go full force in supporting his brother's schooling, except that this time he'd have a much easier time doing it.
Even so, the most important prize for winning the Hunger Games wasn't the immense salary that victors were paid. It was the opportunity to continue on living. Life was the greatest gift of all, and Neo only believed in this life. He wanted to make it count.
Once Neo woke up, he felt even more drained. He couldn't shake the feeling that this meant the end was near. No cannons had fired that he'd heard, but that didn't mean anything. It was entirely possible that he'd been too dead to the world to notice, and there might have only been nine tributes left in this world instead of ten.
Even with the way he felt, the District 10 boy began walking into the woods. He had no bug spray, and it was getting later in the afternoon by now. Soon, the mosquitoes would be coming out in full force, something that Neo wasn't looking forward to. He wished to find a solution to that problem before it got completely dark.
Out of the corner of his eye, he felt like he saw some shapes...two of them. They both seemed to be other people.
One was average height, but stocky and muscular. The other seemed to be skinnier, and also had longer hair. Was one of them Bretson?
"Hey, there's another tribute!" said the larger boy. That was unmistakably the voice of Neo's former ally. Which mean that the boy with him must have been Rey.
"It's Neo" Rey said. "What's he doing here?"
The District 10 boy saw no reason not to be open about where he was. "Yep, that's me. Neo Falco. Kill me if you want to".
"Why would we do that?" Bretson asked. "I'm not going to kill you. You can join us again. Three are better than two in this arena?"
"Really?" asked Neo.
"He's telling the truth" Rey replied. "I think you should join up with us again. Are you going to?"
Neo mulled it over a little. "I suppose that it would be a good idea".
"Great!" Bretson said. "In case you were wondering, we were going to go to the fall island, but we decided that this was better for concealment in the long run. That's the way we're playing, concealment above all else".
Neo nodded. After all, that had been what he was doing as well.
Ebony was on edge. She hadn't managed to score any kills all day, and it was now dusk. The anthem would be starting up any moment, and she hadn't heard any cannons. This meant that all ten tributes who had gone into this day as living children were still alive, and she was no closer to getting home. All she wanted was to win the Hunger Games; was that really this hard to pull off? She didn't see why it would be.
On top of everything else, she was now on the winter island. She'd gone all the way through the swamp for this. She wished that she would have been able to keep more of her body heat intact, but this was the way the Gamemakers had set this arena up. This was how the world ran, so to speak.
And, sure enough, the anthem revealed that there had been a grand total of zero deaths today. Ebony sighed before making a blanket out of pine branches with leaves attached, and she knew one thing.
Tomorrow was going to be chaos.