DAY THREE OF THE GAMES – PART ONE:
Baelfire Jones' POV:
Keeping my senses focused I slip from the small metal shack that I slept in last night. I have one task only today, this task is made up of several parts however and part one is to get myself to the cornucopia. I've been watching it for a while now and it's been a while since anyone else has gone for supplies.
It's now or never I decide as I sprint from the relative safety of the sheds and out into the open. Reaching the mouth of the cornucopia I can see it's been mostly picked over. The only things left were the larger crates and tents that are usually provided to sustain the career pack as well as some large packs and a few loose items which are mostly useless.
Five things I think as I begin to rummage though the pile of stuff that's remaining, the first one is easy enough, there are plenty of empty water bottles lying around. Everyone who wanted one has probably already got one. I grab two of them and throw them into an empty sack.
Item number two is a small knife and luckily I find one of these too, laid under an upturned crate. It's a bit muddy so I wipe it on my trouser leg before sliding it into my belt. Item three is matches; it takes me emptying the contents of three rucksacks to find some hidden in the bottom of a rather large bag. There are also some water purifiers in that bag so I take them too before moving onto item four. Food.
I rummage through the piles of stuff and collect all the food I can, apples, some biscuits and even a few of those energy bars you usually see the careers scoffing on TV. Finally item five; I don't have a particular item in mind here just the usage. I pick up a large and flat sheet of metal and debate taking it till I decide it's too heavy, I'm soon glad I kept searching as I finally find what I'm looking for, a shallow rectangular cooking pan. Perfect.
Feeling happy with my haul I look outside of the cornucopia and see that mercifully it is still clear. Swinging my sack full of goodies over my shoulder I run back towards the sheds not to the one I came from however but the one next to it, this one I had noted contained two of the things I needed, water and,
"Who is it?" comes the call of Laércio, he steps into the light and I see has got his hands on the bow from the cornucopia he pulls it tense and aims it at me.
I step towards him dropping my bag and putting my hands in the air, all the confidence I was lacking in out last encounter comes flooding into me.
"I'm here to help you and your lover die" I tell him.
Syrio Flowers POV:
"Sir" calls Vibia from my left "Sir we have an issue here"
I turn away from setting up this afternoons little surprise and look towards her, "What is it?" I ask irritably. Why can't I just have an incident free game, for one year at least?
Vibia taps the screen with her long red nails, done in exactly the same way as Nina's during the interviews I notice, why that irritable woman had to be such a trendsetter I'll never know. On the screen I watch as Baelfire sits next to Laércio and pulls a large leaf from his pockets before emptying the bag of stuff he'd just collected from the cornucopia.
"I need firewood" he tells the older boy who nods and goes to the edge of the room and begins to pull apart a large empty crate.
"You sure it won't hurt" he asks Baelfire who nods
"Almost positive though obviously I've never tried it before"
"Then how do you know it'll work?" he's asked as Laércio sets up a small fire and lights the dry wood easily, I debate sending in a rain storm tomorrow to dampen a few spirits.
"I know chemicals" Baelfire responds "I've been training my whole life to work developing medicines for the capitol we do more than watch the power plants all day. I know people in medicine and all sorts of other scientific fields."
"Do you make the mutts too?" Laércio asks "I've always wondered"
"Nope" Baelfire replies "I've always wondered who does that too"
"Tell me more about Five" Laércio says and Baelfire goes into a speech about his district sharing things that even I didn't know about District Five and the sensitive scientific experiments they do there, I suddenly panic.
"Is this broadcasting" I ask loudly over to the other side of the room where the editors are sending out the main feeds to the capitol.
"No sir" comes the loud reply of Fronto "We've got Alexandria on the main feed and Choke on the secondary one, anyone watching the two boys will be getting silence."
"Good" I respond turning back to the two of them and wondering what to do next, was it an alliance if one of them was trying to kill the other?
"He's making poison isn't he?" Otho asks stepping towards me; I hadn't heard him come into the room.
"It seems that way" I reply, as Baelfire begins to boil water from one of the taps we'd provided in the sheds over the small fire Laércio had been building. We watch as he rips up a large rhubarb leaf into the mixture and watches as the sap within it seeps out, after the leaves have wilted he pulls out the pieces that remain leaving a milky coloured mixture.
"Is that it?" asks Laércio bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet, Baelfire shakes his head. From around his neck he pulls a chain with a small cloudy looking stone with a twist he removes the stone from the chain, before slipping the chain back on. He removes the tin with the hot mixture in from the fire and slips the knife from his belt using it to begin to scratch the stone.
"What is it?" I ask the room, silence responds. The tributes tokens are always vetted so it can't be coated in poison, it must be a natural element.
Eventually a powder falls from the stone into the water, fizzing and dissolving as it does so.
"Put them on the main feed" I order Fronto, who switches the feeds, the whole of Panem is watching now.
"Done" says Baelfire eventually, as he stirs his concoction with his knife "drink this and you'll be dead within days."
"Days!" exclaims Laércio "You said it'd be instant!"
"I never said that" Baelfire protests as Laércio grabs his bow and arrow, aiming it at the younger boy.
"Then I'll kill you anyway" Laércio yells "I can't have my Chey suffering any longer."
"Fine then" responds Baelfire with a sigh, he slides a hand into his pocket he pulls out a fistful of berries.
"Nightlock?" asks Laércio "but I thought.." he begins, probably about to mention how we usually sweep the arena for nightlock now, don't need any more martyrs. This of course is why this District Eight thing must be carefully monitored.
"No it's Ruti" Baelfire explains quickly, squishing the small red berry into the mixture, its juice drips in like drops of blood. "I was saving them to trick the careers; they'll kill you pretty quickly, and mixed with the rhubarb and soda should make a pretty quick death."
"Soda?" asks Otho, "Is that what the stone was made from?"
"Must be" I reply as Baelfire grabs a flask and pours the mixture into it, seals the lid and passses it over to Laércio "Good luck" he says.
Laércio grabs it from his hand and carrying it and his bow and arrows, leaves the small shed "If this doesn't kill me I'll be back for you" he warns cruelly before disappearing further into the arena.
"Interesting" comments Otho as Fronto keeps the main feed on Baelfire who looks at his potion ingredients around him before filling the second flask he had with clean water and taking a drink.
I reach up and scratch my head "Well that was a new one for me"
"We can't have those kids becoming martyrs" Otho tells me echoing my own previous thoughts.
I nod "but how?"
"You said you had something to show me" he says, reminding me of what I was doing before Vibia distracted me.
"Over here" I say walking back over to my station, on the screen I'd brought up images of the remaining fourteen tributes and their positions in the arena.
Otho looks at it, "what are these" he points to the small red dots.
"Mutts" I respond "I've got full control of them this year, just like the snakes we had chase Mirriam."
"So you can set them on any tribute" he comments "impressive, you use the trackers I presume"
"Of course" I respond "watch this" I look on the map and pick a couple of mutts that are in the same area as Titus, a couple of clicks and up on the screen two dog mutts with bared fangs jump out at the District Two tribute, with his large machete he slices the head of the first with relative ease but the second gets a good bite onto his leg before he dispatches it also.
The whole incident took less than five minutes but our viewing figures spiked tremendously as every screen in the capitol watched the fight.
"Switch to District Seven" Otho orders Fronto who turns the main feed onto watch as Charity Greenwood stares up into the branches of a tree.
"She's been like that for hours" Lalla informs us from the other side of the room "I think she's talking to that Raven character"
"That was her dead sister right" Otho clarifies and Lalla nods
"It's all in her head you know" she tells us
"Shall we see if the Mutts distract her for her fantasies" Otho laughs as we begin to move two mutts to attack her. I gesture for the cannon to be prepared.
"Sir" interrupts Vibia again.
"What" I bark in response, as I select the Mutts closest to Charity. Couldn't she tell I was working here?
"The tributes from two have found each other"
A/N: I'm gonna be mean and leave you there. I have a busy couple of weeks coming up so please don't be too mad if the next bit takes too long to appear.