Day Three, Afternoon:

"Under certain circumstances profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."

— Mark Twain

Olga Pierce, Climate Gamemaker:

The best thing about being the head of the climate and environment department in the Gamemaker's laboratory was that in spite of the labouring experience required the working itself wasn't demanding. There were other lesser important Gamemakers who did the more heinous work, whilst I sat around and made the decisions. I had done little; made the arena hot sometimes, then made it cold, controlled the darkness and the humidity. Though I never resorted to extremities. Doing such a thing would only fill me with guilt.

"Dr. Carter!"

I didn't respond at first, but soon realised that I was Dr. Carter. And Dr. Carter, or any proper Gamemaker, wouldn't be so generous to tributes. Tributes were all chess pieces to Gamemakers, ones that had to be removed piece by piece to ensure that the Game was entertaining for the expecting audience. Was Tobias going to question my morality? Keeping on a contrived, stern expression I walked out into the pristine white corridors with my boss.

"Yes Tobias?"

"I hate to insult your work, you are doing a good job..." Tobias paused. "But tonight can you whip up something a bit more... Punishing... Like a furious rainstorm. I'm not asking for a hurricane or such..."

"Punishing? Why?"

"The tributes have had it too easy," Tobias paused. "I have to kill them..."

"And a rainstorm could change that?"

"Ever heard of hypothermia?" Tobias replied.

"Of course... But you have tried killing our tributes... Those mutant worms almost finished Archimedes... Last time I checked Tarren and Leo were close to Cardinal, who seems eager to claim a life and Helen and Vigil had almost perished in that strange, ethereal mist you had sent..."

"And they survived," Tobias sighed, allowing stress to take him for a second before keeping his rational facade. "Fortunately the Cardinal conclusion hasn't yet been reached, but yes – he is close to Tarren. Helen and Vigil have one more battle to face and the Careers are on the prowl, but they've all survived once... I fear they'll survive again... Should I unleash an arenawide trap? Should I animate the corpses that lie buried in the arena, or could you unleash acid rain, a perishing tempest? There's so many tributes to kill in so little time..."

"You seem eager to kill sir," I pointed out.

Tobias glanced at me, shocked by my shred of morality. "I'm not eager to kill... I should be, but I'm not Abigayl. Don't tell anyone, please, because I do care for the tributes deep inside... I want to provide them with as painless a death I can... I can't help but care for the people who show me their hopes, dreams, family and even the more subtle aspects of their soul – their mannerisms and quirks, for example. But Abigayl we started these Games, and we must finish them."

"Don't throw an arena encompassing disaster," I said, secretly worrying for the tributes. "Only wipe the board in extreme circumstances, or around the final... How about you just throw in a couple more traps and pray that they work?"

"I'll throw in a trap to kill the current safest alliance," Tobias soliloquised. "And tonight I'll throw in many more – and tomorow, and the next day..." My employer paused when his ear phone rang, and he simply chose to ignore it. Probably his wife, I assumed. The popstar had recently been harassing her husband, suspecting infedelity while he worked. I wanted to bring down the Gamemakers, and River told me that we'd finish them when we had the change, but though Tobias was leading this repulsive scheme he didn't deserve death for his sins. He did care.

He turned and walked with his deputy who I avoided – how I still missed and loved my mother, despite her hostile attitude she didn't deserve death either, or maybe my love made me biased. As Dr. Carter I couldn't afford to think of the deputy head Gamemaker as my mother, I had to think of her as Ruth. I composed myself and turned to see a familiar face in Avox apparel-

"River!" I gasped, and lowered my voice in case of security cameras. "Is that you? You're an Avox, what have they done to you?"

The buxomly lady turned and began to walk. "Nothing, do you think they'd capture me? I am fully aware that communication devices in this building are harshly monitored, and I had so much to tell you – I know the liberal alliance have weekly meetings, but I grew impatient. I had to get this disguise and speak to you immediately."

I turned away from River, back towards my office so the CCTV cameras couldn't catch anything suspicious – if a security guard such as that fiend Manny Nutt were monitoring us, it would seem as if we were going about our work, or as if I was giving the 'Avox' in front of me cold commands. "I have to be back in my office soon – you have foolishly endangered both of us. What do you desperately need to tell me?"

"You surely know of all the arson attacks in District Four?"

"Of course, it has blitzed the news and the radio stations."

"It seems as if these attacks were not commited by hooligans, we have managed to hack through the Capitol's censoring system and communicate with other Districts, and we managed to talk to two people, Kyliena Barns and Coral Rigg – both have set up a group of rebels!"

"In District Four?" I gasped as I clutched onto the door handle. "One most loyal to the Capitol... No doubt the President would try to snuff such vehement acts..."

"He has tried, but they aren't being blatant in their attacks... Subtleness is the only way now, isn't it clear?" River went up to the coffee machine and allowed hot chocolate to flow into a polystyrene cup that was supposedly for one of the Gamemakers, still keeping her face from the camera's view River continued. "If this example latches onto the other Districts they'll all revolt, all overthrow their Peacekeepers and unite to overthrow the Capitol... But unlike the last rebellion they won't have to fight their way into the Capitol. We recruit more and more people by the day, and sure some of our numbers dwindle when certain members of ours are shot in protests, but we can guide these rebels in... Think about it Olga, there'll be freedom for everyone."

"Tobias is planning an arena wide disaster soon," I whispered, opening the door to my office and slowly crossing the threshold. "Can we not save these tributes?"

"No..." River sighed. "This plan will take a year at least... Maybe five, maybe ten years..."

"Just go," I snapped, already grieving the tributes whose lives would end. "You've put us into danger, now leave before you're caught."

The tears in my eyes released themselves, strolling down my cheeks. I was stuck in this dull position, forced to control the arena's atmosphere and induce misery. I couldn't save these tributes. I couldn't even tell my mother how much I loved her because she didn't know I existed, she thought of me as some trivial environmentalist who had killed her old colleague. I hadn't even garnered any information for the liberal alliance's benefit. Where was the goodness in this? When would there be benefits?

Leonardo Brydon, District 10, 16:

Tarren screamed as one of the tributes lunged towards her, cackling with delight and pinning her to the ground hastily and eagerly raising his blade, ready to crash it down into my ally. Luckily I reacted quickly, lashing my lasso around the fiend's blade and allowing it to escape his grip. The Nine boy cursed and fumbled for another knife, but by then my ally had gained her wits and she slammed her knee into her assailant's crotch.

He keeled over, crying out in agony as Tarren scrambled to the sponsor gift that had fell – no! She should've ran towards me. I cursed her haughtiness whilst glancing at the Nine boy, who clung onto his violated pelvis whilst laughing through the agony. What kind of freak did that? A sadomasochist? That only made the situation seem a lot more dangerous. He seemed like the kind of person who enjoyed eating babies for breakfast.

Cardinal slowly thrust himself into action as my ally tore off the paper of his parcelled sponsor gift, revealing a black briefcase. He fumbled for another knife again, but I used my lasso to constrict him again desperately – I stood a bigger chance in battle than Tarren did, after all. Though the Nine boy was strong, I managed to conjure enough strength to force him to the rough ground at my feet. If I could subdue cattle, I could easily knock down the horrid psychopath in front of me.

Though he was more cunning that I had predicted, as he had somehow managed to use a concealed knife to saw his way through my lasso, permanently ruining the one thing I called a weapon. I yelled out desperately as Cardinal threw himself off the ground, spontaneously slashing at me so uncontrollably his attacks easily missed. I shoved him back and desperately turned, looking for somewhere to run. But I couldn't run, my injured leg wouldn't allow me.

"Run Tarren!" I cried out. "Run f-"

My commands were destroyed when I felt a blade pierce the back of my shoulder. There was a second of blinding pain, making my blood curdle and my vision whiten, and then I was thrown to the ground as the agony conquered me. I was blinded, but I could still hear the attacker laugh, feel red hot blood spill from my wound, smell the dirt that my nose had been pressed against.

My sight managed to find its way back into my eyes as my attacked turned me around with a gleeful smile. "The name is Cardinal... I'm your killer, and I like to play with my food..." He orientated his knife around my face, looking for the best place to mutilate me. "You tried fighting me, but like every other simpering, pathetic human you lost. Do you know I have faced off people much stronger than you. Do you know where they lurk? Underground, decaying as maggots slowly eat away at whatever flesh remains on their broken bones. One quality humanity shares, ultimately their biggest weakness, is hope. I can still feel the hope radiating from your heart, I can feel it beating its last few beats furiously. Your breaths are finite District Ten, your eyes will soon close. Are you still hopeful? Your ally has probably done the wisest thing and ran, but I'll find her and kill her too... Want to know how?"

"Educate me," I heaved, trying to turn towards the ground and banish Cardinal from my sight, but he gripped my throat and forbade me from ignoring him.

"Well I think I'll start with..."

Cardinal, like me, was interrupted mid sentence. A large black case smashed into the side of his head and smashed him into the ground. Tarren looked furious and merciless, for she kept on whacking Cardinal and shouting harrowing expletives. She didn't stop until Cardinal's skull bled, sending small crimson blood into the ground. She looked down upon him with ragged breaths, and he seemed well and truly overpowered.

And yet my enraged ally didn't give up – the heavy, solid briefcase she held was strong enough to stun someone, to bludgeon them to unconsciousness, but Tarren was desperate to take it a step further. She continuously smacked the briefcase into Cardinal's head, ignoring the puddles of blood or the teeth that he sometimes spat out. She seemed hellbent on killing him, but rage wasn't her muse – she was full of fear. I could see her hands shake, hear her release a loud scream as she bashed in his skull a few more times. Soon she stopped, looking down at her assailing who (though injured) was still alive and laughing.

"Do you have anything to kill him?" Tarren asked, shakily wiping the sweat from her brow.

"No."

"We have to go," Tarren looked at her victim (and an ironic victim at that) before throwing the suitcase at him once more, so that Cardinal groaned as the suitcase forcefully crashed into his harmed skull. "Keep the suitcase you motherfucker."

Shocked by Tarren's passion and anger, I tremulously elevated and held onto her hand. "Lets get away from here – what was in that suitcase?"

"Oh, vials of chemicals, the usual thing," Tarren shrugged as we sped away from Cardinal's body. "They were usually acids though... I think the audience wanted to see someone get tortured. I wouldn't let that happen, not right now. I wish we could've killed him Leo, but I... I don't know... We could've used his knife, or what if he had others? Panic made us foolish, desperation just wanted us to run... And now he has a load of chemicals..."

"And you, District Eight scientific genius, didn't take them?"

"I'm not a genius," Tarren grinned as we moved onto an unexpected gravelly pathway, which we then decided to venture. "But who said I didn't take a few vials? Only ones with the chemicals I could identify though... Although I'm sure those other chemicals are all acidic, corrosive, poisonous and explosive I didn't want a big suitcase to hinder us... I've only taken about fifteen, but I can mix it up into something big... Or use natural ingredients... Who knows what the possibilities are?"

I may of felt the need to protect Tarren, but it was reassuring knowing that (in her own weird way) she was capable of taking care of herself. "Did I ever tell you how fantastic you are?"

Aibileen Karpis, District 6, 16:

The chaos all seemed so sudden. Danni and I were walking, allowing the taciturn atmosphere to engulf us whilst we pondered and silently admired the aesthetics of nature – sundry trees surrounded us; oak, elm, yew and various others I couldn't identify, all rising like natures answer to a skyscraper, their manes of leaf soaking up the sun and casting waves of shadows around the forest beneath it. Roots were released from them, their own wooden, encumbering limbs. Sometimes I could see the sun – through the small cracks above me. It was very rare I saw sun, moon, sky or stars without any obscuring foliage.

It seldom happened, but when it did Danni and I couldn't resist stopping and admiring the sky, knowing it was potentially the last sky we'd ever appreciate. That pessimistic thought expressed, I thought at the time than my friend and I were secure; we had food, a weapon and no dangerous encounters yet – the only encounter we did have was with some boy who was strangely dead now. That thought didn't truly comfort me – there were mutts, traps, Careers and high scoring tributes that were all prepared to kill me.

"Lets hurry," Dannielle said as I stopped observing the copious amount of trees surrounding us. "I get a bad feeling about this place–"

As Dannielle moved forwards in a rush to quit the area a root on the ground snaked its way in front of her leg, outstretching itself so that she tripped to the ground with a surprised cry. That root just purposely tripped Dannielle over – the words sounded mad in my head, like something from a fantasy novel, but this was the Hunger Games, and one of the things I had learnt from reading books about doctors was that anything could be achieved biologically when genes were meddled and toyed with.

"What the hell?" Dannielle exclaimed, looking at her dirt covered hands irritatedly.

With my muteness being a disadvantage again I couldn't verbally confabulate with my ally, only open and close my mouth uselessly – and as she lay prostrate with her vision aimed opposite me signing was impossible. Noticing the receding root that had tripped Danni, I moved towards my ally in the hopes of physically alerting her. Though (as expected) the coiling root would not permit such a thing; it lunged for my leg a couple of times, and with jumps and hops I avoided it.

Though it wasn't the only section of the tree that had come to life – roots to the right of me suddenly became conscious, roots behind me and any other plant life that lay still on the forest floor came alive, like deadly wooden serpents that had come together as a malignous choir. I cognitively cursed as a couple of roots wound themselves around my ankles, forcing me to the ground.

Though I could make no noise my ally was roused by my inactivity and by the sound of my body hitting the ground with a dull thud. She saw the army of live roots with wide, blue eyes before she quickly stood up and waved her knife at the roots. They weren't intimidated in the slightest, though they were somewhat tentative whe they whipped themselves toward her, trying to disarm and drag her.

I felt useless as the plant life tried to drag me to god knows where. With an angry scowl I began to kick and thrive, slowly wriggling out of their harsh grip to go to the aid of my ally, who looked alarmed as the roots began to surround and attack her relentlessly – when I did escape I leapt towards Danni, trying (and kind of failing) to avoid the moving roots, which seemed to stiffen and erect angrily when I dared throw a punch in their direction. In a mad way they reminded me of Medusa's hair, only much more physical in their assault.

"What... Is... This?" Danni asked as more roots attached themselves to her. She managed to hack and cut into some roots, but they had eventually conquered – one by one latching onto her arms, legs, waist and chest and struggling to drag her to the ground. Upon reaching her I took the knife from my ally's hand forcefully, ignoring her cries and beginning to attack the thriving roots, though they were sturdy and strong – as I slashed furiously at the thriving roots the worst I could do was chip away some of the bark.

Fortunate, and unlike my ally, I had managed to avoid being captured by the roots, their limbs constantly snatched at me in an attempt to bind and tangle me, but years of boxing training had blessed me with good reflexes. And it also seemed as it the trees came more alive with each dodge – after avoiding and hacking at the live roots, the tree's branches accompanied their ally, swung at me harshly.

Though rough bark and thorns grated my skin away I raised my arms, tactfully using skilful jabs and right hooks to deflect the fiendish tree's blows away with my own, though I could already foresee that I wasn't in a victorious position – the roots that ensnared Danni were beginning to crush her against the nearest tree whilst I boxed with a tree. It sounded strange when written down, but I was literally having a hand to hand fight with a tree.

I ducked under a whipping root, used my fist to block a swinging branch (and wincing as I felt more blood flow out of a fresh cut) and uselessly tried using my knife again – it had no use. I felt the tears looming somewhere, desperation and adrenaline beginning to wane, everything seemed useless and the tree seemed temporarily unconquerable. Danni screamed as her face was compressed to the solid trunk of one yew tree, but I was of no use now – a blow from the live tree sent me to the ground, defeated and useless.

I even felt myself begin to die when a miscellaneous root wrapped itself around my neck, lifting my whole body off the ground and executing me like I was a criminal of sorts. All this fighting and trying would come down to a tree? What an undignified way to die. My blurred eyes looked across to the ally, who was still being crushed against the tree opposite me. I felt stupid and useless, being rendered paralysed by a noose-like root that squeezed the life out of my with its vice like grip. However, it didn't to anything to ebb away my determination – with the thought of Danni's life on the line, as well as mine, I bucked and thrashed continually until dark circles began to fill and obscure my vision like a swarm of locusts. Slowly the energy burned out of me, everything became slower, less drastic...

And then there was a flash of heat, numbed by my dying lack of perception. I couldn't feel anything but the root that strangled me ease away before I crashed to the ground helplessly, lying up and staring at the green ceiling of leaves that blocked the sky and the sun. The pain around my neck was still apparent, although dull and dreary. I still felt myself fall into unconsciousness bit by bit, until I turned to glance at a shocked looking Danni who lay beside me with beads of blood flowing out of her nose and mouth.

I took in a breath, smiled and then curled up into unconsciousness.

Archimedes Plutus, District 2, 17:

"Day three and there's been seven deaths?" I couldn't help but feel infuriated. "Why is it taking the Gamemakers so bloody long? Why have they given us an arena where tributes can hide so easily? Forests like these are supposed to be loose so it's easy to spot prey, but no, the Gamemakers just don't want an intelligent Career like me. Can't you feel the new wave of Hunger Games bias, Astrid? I can smell it... I've smelt it since Iopian won the 201st Games, and Rayann winning the one after that. The Gamemakers are obviously playing moral guardians here. They don't want the Careers to win!"

"Hmm... Totally," Astrid said, but I soon realised she was being sarcastic. "They only gave us all the high tech weapons in the Cornucopia, ignored our immense weaponry skills and gave the little tributes somewhere to run or hide with little means of fighting back – gosh, damn those Gamemakers, they hate us!"

"I got these beauties with pure wit," I boasted.

"Hm, what do they do?"

"This sword," I said, indicating to the one I currently held. "Has an electric current in it, all I need to do is press a button and all I need to do is stab a youngling in order for the current to zap them and fry them. Fun, right? This thing," (I patted a knife that was abnormally long) "I like this one. I've concluded that it has a plasma based core of sorts, because it can pretty much burn its way through anything... And the knife adjacent? You'll like that one Astrid, if you press a button it ejects the blade towards a target – like a throwing knife, only less skill required, and then press another button and a magnetic pulse drags the blade back. I have a few more of the hi-tech stuff, but I left it at the base. Isn't science miraculous?"

Astrid blinked. "I don't get the fuss over it, to be honest."

"What?" I sounded affronted. "Everything we get comes from science! The food we eat, the vaccines we get to cure us, those silly designer clothes you wore – science all gave us them! It permitted us space exploration, took us back in time and gave us a glimpse on what the earth looked like – we can edit a biological being's DNA, create indestructible weapons! Are you trying to tell me that science is of no use whatsoever?"

Astrid flicked back more of her strawberry blonde hair, listening to my rant with keen ears. I knew I had won as we continued walking along the forest, looking out for tributes as some furry creatures communicated to each other. "I totally get where you're coming from Archie, I really do... But science is so overrated. I mean, it just isn't natural – science is selfish. It helps humans but destroys nature, really. We cut it down and use it all for our own gain – animals become research things, trees become paper, metal in the earth becomes steel that we use for some trivial reason or the other." The vain District One girl checked her nails, making sure no dirt had infiltrated them before continuing. "I mean is there any point? Science may fight disease, but I heard in the Pre-Panem era a scientist trying to find a cure for some old disease called AID or something instead created a new disease that ridded half of the planet, this country shouldn't even be called Panem! It was North America before disease melted governments and collapsed civilisation."

"That's an urban legend–"

"Nuclear war didn't end the world Archie," Astrid laughed. "My daddy is friends with some scientist and he was talking about nuclear blah boring stuff in the air, and a lack of it showed that no nuclear weapons have been used in thousands of years, so what if disease almost did eradicate humankind? And then science poses a threat... Nuclear bombs, newly created mutts. And as much as I love all this cool technology stuff, do I really need it? Is this science stuff just promoting superficiality too? I'm superficial, shallow and an arrogant bitch. What started that? Science making trivial stuff for covetous people like daddy and me."

I paused, awed by Astrid's argument – an argument which seemed moderately intelligent whilst being backed by seemingly valid scientific evidence. What could I say to that? Science was dangerous as well as helpful, only a fool could say otherwise. Were humans foolish to meddle and manipulate nature in such a way? The one thing I had worshipped just seemed meaningless now. But I could still use it – science and intelligence could be used to kill, Astrid told me that, she acknowledged it. Soon she'd experience it.

"I'm impressed by your argument Astrid."

"It was a brief stroke of genius," a twig snapped behind us and with one flash of movement Astrid killed a deer, watching it fall to the ground as a knife protruded out of its head. My ally shrugged and walked along, me walking with her. "Try to challenge me with any other argument and–"

"Can you give me one benefit of genetic engineering?"

"Erm... It makes people pretty?"

"I'm afraid you're right... Not about genetic engineering, about your stroke of genius," I paused. "Shame. I want someone intelligent on the Career team to talk to – Melanthe is intelligent, but she feels more than she thinks... She has a rational facade, but that's only a mirror – it reflects a meaningless surface and it's fragile, easy to shatter. A tormented girl with such strong emotions can never be rational unless they are psychopathic, am I right?" Astrid nodded in corroboration. "And Luster is intelligent... I've had talks with him, but he knows all that theory, it's cooped up in his little head. But he's much too introverted to show any talent, too modest – therefore he has little ability to apply such knowledge into more practical situations."

"You know them well," Astrid commented.

"I do. I watch every move, every mannerism – Luster fiddles with the shoulder pad of his satchel when he's nervous, Melanthe hates eye contact when a conversation takes an emotional level – I even know some of yours Astrid; when someone does something foolish you raise your eyebrows."

"And you still plan on betraying them?"

"Well... Yes, around the final eight. All Careers do that – I wouldn't be surprised if they (or you for that matter) did the exact same to me, only I intend to be one step ahead of the competition."

"I can betray them – I have a moral passport to do so," Astrid said to me. "I don't do anything emotionally with them – I don't observe them or find out about their life, how could I do that to someone I was to kill? What a daunting thought!" She scowled at me. "If I knew someone like the back of my hands – if I knew what their favourite colour was, or what they ate for breakfast, killing them would be extremely difficult. I'd do it, but I'd feel passionately guilty, wouldn't you?"

"It's a game Astrid. I play it regardless of favourite colours."

"And do you plan on betraying me?" Astrid grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me straight into the eye. "Could you kill me as easily as you could kill Melanthe and Luster? Could you? Killing you wouldn't be my favourite thing in the world... Every conversation I have with you I feel my spirit entwine just that little bit more with yours. Every word exchanged is one more thing I learn about you. If I didn't know what you were like, Archimedes Plutus, I could easily say without any hesitation that I trusted you."

"When it hits the final eight just go," I said indifferently. "That way I kill the other two – if they're still alive, and you have a fighting chance. I'd still kill you, though."

"And I you," Astrid's eyebrows raised again – not in a haughty manner, as if I had said something foolish, but in an exasperated one – it was she who had been foolish. "Lets forget this and find someone to kill."

With pleasure.

Vigil Hatzardys, District 12, 18:

Helen clutched onto the metal bars frustratedly, looking out at the mossy corridors ahead of us before turning to me. It seemed as if we were well and truly trapped – both portcullis' were tightly shut, and even somebody as lanky as me was unable to squeeze through the narrow spaces they provided, there was no way out – there was the open space above us, but that was only the Gamemakers teasing us. How could we climb such a distance with no apparent ledges? The walls were smooth and untouched, unaffected by any decay. Why couldn't that gas have just killed me? It would be much quicker and time consuming than waiting around and starving to death, slowly becoming one of the skeletons that made up the flooring below me.

"Maybe there's something below us," Helen said, moving over to the fragments of bones and using her hands to scoop them up and fling them aside, slowly but surely burying a small hole into the mound of bones. It was a clever, but an altogether fallible plan. It was day three and there were no deaths, so the Gamemakers weren't going to let us escape their sanctity of terror so easily. What did they want from us? Starvation? I was pretty hungry already, but dehydration would kill Helen and I first. Or...

I voiced my concerns to Helen. "That won't work."

Helen seemed frustrated as she aggressively tried shovelling the bones away. "Why?"

"The plan seems too easy," I simply said. "Gamemakers want death... Of course it's against Gamemaker conduct to place a tribute in an inescapable situation, but they can obviously put us in a very tricky one. Simply digging our way out would be too easy... And we're already underground, surely the Gamemakers won't permit us to go any further? No... Certainly not. They can't make it certain, but those rascals are going to try and kill us first."

"How? Starvation?" Helen frowned. "Better than being torn apart by a Career I guess."

"Starvation is much too boring."

"So what will they do? Send a mutt in?"

I nodded solemnly. Circular room full of decaying, yellow bones? It was the perfect place to send in a few skeletons gladiator style. But how to escape? Defeating the mutt wouldn't promise survival, there was no way out of the portcullis' and the walls were so slippery it was impossible to clamber out of this underground prison. Maybe getting out was related to the lever situated approximately ten meters above my head. I didn't mention that, did I? I dismissed it as unworthy, but that was a foolish first mistake – of course it was the way out!

... Too bad I wasn't abnormally tall.

"We're trapped and there's potentially a mutt – or a fleet of mutts – on our way, oh god..." Helen's pale face seemed to lose what little colour it once held. "What are we going to do?"

"The lever above your head," I said, indicating to it.

"What?" Helen looked up. "Vigil, we can't reach that, you're six foot but that's like... Sixteen foot..."

"No shit Sherlock."

"I cannot believe you just said that–"

Helen was cut off by a distance rumbling, minor vibrations bounced around below our feet before the earth released a cacophonous roar – like the bones were beasts warning us of what was to come, and then the distance vibration radiated stronger and stronger, evolving into a hostile tremor that threw Helen and I were thrown into a bed of bones and skulls. The ground was already unstable, but now it seemed ready to collapse – Helen screamed as a skull beside her levitated, and miscellaneous bones did the same. All of them levitated one by one before slotting into one giant warrior:

And a terrifying warrior it was, constructed from nothing but hollow bones – there was a solid body, structured from normal bone (although abnormally long legs, body and arms. This warrior was about thrice my height, with ribs as big as a staircase). Its skull seemed large, with barely any teeth. In its chipped hand lay a large piece of bone that was shaped so that it resembled a sword...

Or maybe it was.

"Look out!" I shouted, though I was the one in danger, as the sword launched itself toward me I pulled my body out its reach, watching as it splintered the bones I rested on with apparent ease. I'd hate to think what it could do to my bones. Helen was standing too, ducking as the blade had been swiped above her head and denting the wall behind her. The stubborn beast moved its attack back at me, the jagged part of the blade not hitting me but the solid end of it knocking me to the unstable ground.

It respectively turned to Helen, launching an attack that almost crushed her – catching a glimpse of Helen's face, her tear stained cheeks and desperate eyes turned me into some undiscovered guardian. I picked up a skull close to my left hand and flung it at the beast's own skull, smiling internally when the piece of otherwise useless bone finished at its desired destination.

A blueprint of potential mapped my mind in an instant as a relieved Helen looked at me, and an infuriated skeleton beast turned to me with the intention of ending my life. My heart froze, but as I continuously ducked powerful attacks I knew exactly how to escape this hellhole. There was a big chance both me and my ally would die, but dying trying was better than giving up.

"Helen," I gasped as a spiked sword missed me again. I considered myself lucky that this creature had a weak accuracy. "I think I've distracted it..." I leapt aside as the thing tried clubbing me again. "So you climb up on it and pull that lever down, okay?" My sentence ended with me rolling over (quite gracefully, I must say) as the creature once again decided it wanted to split my body in half. I liked making this whole battle seem effortless, but my body was starting to drench itself in sweat and fear prompted my heart to beat unbelievably fast.

Helen reluctantly did as she was told, running up to the animate, titanic skeleton and leaping up so that she had clung onto its hip – the creature didn't seem to notice, blinded by its desire to kill me rather than her. As it continued moving and pouncing Helen was shook violently, and the beast's once dodgy accuracy had repaired itself slowly; as I tried moving to avoid another blow I cried out in pain as the sword swiftly slashed its way across my back.

"Vigil!" I heard Helen cry as I was thrown head first into the bones. "I–I can't do this..."

I rolled over as the creature grabbed me and raised me off the ground so that my blood seeped over, dyeing the bones of its fingers a cerise colour. I could see Helen clinging onto one of the creature's ribs, as if they were monkey bars in a playground. She was so close to the lever – and yet she seemed so unconfident, hanging and restraining her tears. "Jump for it Helen – dying trying is better than dying giving up."

I didn't intend to finish my sentence, but the unintelligent creature didn't know that – it squeezed my stomach in an attempt to shut me up before raising me, probably will the intention of throwing me so harshly into the wall my skull would break, and then there was a shout. I turned to see Helen jump, barely managing to grasp onto the lever so that her weight pulled it down. There was an awkward moment where she simply dangled, one sweaty palm grasped onto the lever–

And then she fell as the wall burst into life, releasing small chunks of rock, each one overlapping the other until it became apparent that the stone wall was turning into a staircase. As Helen screamed and fell, her nasty fall was scuppered and she landed on one of the stairs, rolling down another few. The beast reacted wildly, but it was too late – one of the stairs swept its way under the monster's legs like a soft wave, but with more devastating concequences. The large skeleton's fragile legs were snapped and the creature and I fell; it ended with an explosion of bones and I fell in the midst of it.

Despite the imminent bruise on my chest and the cuts across my back, I was going to be okay. That was a relief of its own. I turned to my ally, who was a few steps above me and rewarded her with a congratulatory smile. It seemed as if Helen had saved my life again. For somebody so vulnerable I knew my ally was a fighter from the moment I saw her. And as usual (if you don't mind me saying) I was right.

As she stood up shakily, descending the stairwell to make sure I was okay, I couldn't help but think that I couldn't be any righter.

Guess who is back!

And also, on the first week in school been crammed with lots of homework? Me? No...

I'm so sorry for the late update. I think updates are going to go from 5 days to 10 days, maybe even two weeks if I'm ultra busy. And one week if I'm ultra inspired. And I hate mentioning them now because I hate sounding like a review whore (which I am...) but if you're reading this, please click that review button? I feel like I'm beginning to bore you all.

~Toxic

Capitol Commentator Question: Who would you say the smartest tribute?

Interview Question: What's your favourite kind of weather? I like a mild sun with a light breeze to accompany it... Snow is always fun too, until it melts.