Why yes, this is a chapter!
Day 3
KKK
"But Kendra, you did such a great job guarding yesterday. You should guard again," Kendra muttered under her breath, mimicking what Castiel had said to her a few hours before hand. Well, it was clear to her that Castiel didn't think she was good enough to go out on the prowl.
Obviously fate wanted her in the Games though, or her best friend Keitha never would have been reaped and Kendra wouldn't have had to volunteer. Her fate couldn't have been to come to the Games just to guard. She was better than that, and she wanted to prove that she was worthy of being there. And so she did what any other girl in her position would do. She left.
No tribute in their right mind would ambush the Career camp. Not if they weren't suicidal, at least. And she had plans to be back at camp before the others returned. They'd never know the difference.
She didn't get far into the maze before she was lost.
"I took a left, then a right, then went straight, another left," she muttered to herself, trying to keep it all straight. She really wished that she had a map. That gave her an idea. They had a map in their possession. All they had to do was get their hands on pen and paper and copy it down. Then they'd have a few maps. Of course, there'd only be one map with the other tributes' location. But a map with no tribute location was better than no map at all. Kendra took another turn and almost ran into a huge spider web. The spider wasn't there, though. Kendra didn't want to wait for it to return, but that was a very intricate web. The material was thick and white. She was curious enough to reach forward and touch it. It was sticky. Well, it had to be sticky, that's how flies were caught. She pulled her finger away, but it wouldn't budge.
"Shit."
She heard scuttling behind her, Kendra turned to see the spider coming her way. She cursed again. It studied her, and Kendra didn't break eye contact. She had heard that it was wise to keep eye contact with wild animals and not to be the first to look away. Well, she was the ultimate champion in the staring contests that she used to participate in at school. In fact, most of the others refused to challenge her.
For once, she liked her title of the girl who doesn't blink. It was true. Her Panem studies teacher once said that the average person blinks 25 times a minute. So of course, all the students had to try it out. Thistle had the most with forty blinks a minute. And the least number of blinks was brought to you by yours truly, a number of 12 which totally baffled her Panem studies teacher.
Kendra felt the hiccups coming on. She always got them when she was scared. She had the sudden urge to bite her nails, but with one hand stuck on the web and the other holding a weapon, her nails were safe for awhile. She needed to kick that habit, and now seemed like a perfectly good time to do so.
The spider wasn't blinking either. Kendra kept her stare-down going, refusing to be the first to look away. Why did it seem like it knew what she was thinking? And the thing was moving its pinchers, and she swore it was trying to communicate with her.
He took a step closer to her.
Kendra screamed.
TTT
Her ears were never going to stop ringing. Never. No matter what turn they took, there was always someone screaming. First there was the screaming when they cornered that one alliance. They needed a name. Tory was so sick and tired of having to say "The Threes with Six girl and Seven boy." It was just a very long name. She was part of the Careers, a name that was easy to remember, one that no one would forget, one that caused the other tributes to tremble at the knees.
Well, now the alliance was down to only three. The fourth was struggling in Tallulah's arms right now. Tory wished they had just killed him when they had the chance. Now they had a prisoner to watch. But Tallulah didn't want to just kill him. She had an agenda that included torture. Tory, on the other hand, didn't believe in torture. That was just plain mean. A clean kill, no pain. It was how she wanted to go.
"Are you sure they aren't following us?" Tallulah barked at Tory. Since Tallulah was busy with their prisoner, Tory had been given the task of watching the screen. She turned it on and consulted the map, looking for the pink, lilac and gray names. She was starting to memorize what colors signified which name. Now she looked for colors instead of reading all of the names that still littered the map.
"They will," Linden managed to spit out. Tallulah tightened her grip on him.
"Nope, not yet. They're still in the southeast corner, not moving. I think we did a number on them." Tory turned off the map again. The battery percentage just kept getting lower and lower.
"Well, corn does make a good weapon," Zep said from behind them. "A nice little club."
"Then where's the screaming coming from?" Tallulah asked with a clipped tone. "It sounds close."
"It sounds like Kendra," Tory added. The three Careers looked at each other with wide eyes.
"KENDRA?" They said together.
"But she's supposed to be guarding the camp," Tallulah said. "Tory, is Kendra at camp?"
After checking the map, Tory saw that Kendra was definitely NOT at the camp, but she did recognize the dead end where Kendra was stuck. Only because Tallulah had complained about it yesterday and shown the others exactly where the spider was on the map. Obviously, Kendra hadn't been paying attention. "No, but I know where she is, and you're not going to like it." Tory took a right instead of a left, and hurried her stride as the screaming intensified. It was definitely Kendra. And she seemed to be in pain.
They rounded the last turn and saw Kendra, caught in the spider web. The gigantic spider was working on wrapping her up in a tight white cocoon.
"Geez, Kendra, we give you one duty and you muck that up. Stay at the camp. That was all that was asked of you. You idiot. I should just leave you there." Tallulah shook her head angrily. The more Kendra struggled the tighter the cocoon became.
"You can't just leave me here!" She squealed. "It's too early on in the Games, you still need me."
Tory didn't see how they could need her. After all, Kendra never did what she was told. She was always too busy looking up at the stars. They probably would be better off without her. "We should ask Castiel." Tory reached over to grab the walkie attached to Tallulah's pants. The spider continued to wrap Kendra, not caring about the other four standing just feet away. It was now working on wrapping up her neck. Soon, she wouldn't be able to breathe. Tory pressed the button on the walkie. "Castiel, Kendra's stuck in the spider's web. What should we do? Over."
It was three long seconds before Castiel's voice came through the static. "Leave her there. Over."
"That's what I said," Tallulah said triumphantly. Then her face contorted in rage. "Why is it that you insisted on listening to him? He put me in charge of this group. That should have been my call. Come on, let's release her and see what Castiel says to that."
By the time they finished their conversation, Kendra's neck was almost bound. Her breath was coming in quick bursts. Tory felt bad that Kendra was in so much pain, but other than that, Tory didn't care much. They either needed to free her or end her life.
"You know, the spider's probably hungry. It just wants to eat a good dinner," Zep spoke up.
"That's morbid," Linden said quietly. Tallulalah sighed and hit him with her elbow, knocking him unconscious.
"Great, now we'll have to carry him," Tory complained.
"Or we can leave him here for the spider to eat. If we're freeing Kendra, might as well leave him something." Zep said, getting ready to drag Linden's limp body over to the web.
"Don't you mean someone?" Tallulah asked as she grabbed her spear and headed towards the spider. "I don't want to kill it. It might come in handy later."
"It's a mutant, Tallulah. It'll be stupid to leave it alive."
"Just make up your damn minds already." Kendra burst out angrily. "I'm tired of this back and forth nonsense."
"Ooh, looky here. Kendra's getting snappy."
The three Careers went to work freeing Kendra. Tallulah and Zep kept the spider back while Tory used her small knife to cut through the silky white thread that the spider had graciously covered Kendra with. Well, she tried, but the knife stuck in and wouldn't budge. "Shit," she muttered, trying to remove it. Tory turned to Tallulah, "I don't think we'll be getting her out."
"Kill the spider?" Zep suggested. And before Tallulah could object, Zep slid his sword blade through the spider's stomach. The animal's painful scream pierced Tory's ears and echoed long after it was dead. The web dried up and wilted. Tory's knife clattered to the ground first, then Kendra.
"'Bout time," she complained, dusting the dirt off of her bum.
"Any longer and you would have been the spider's dinner," Zep said as he helped Tallulah pick up Linden. "And then he would have been mad cause I'm sure you would have tasted nasty. Seriously, you have like no meat on your bones."
They were a sight to behold as they walked back to camp where the other three were already waiting. Castiel did not look pleased when he saw Kendra. He rounded on Tallulah. "I said to leave her." Castiel practically growled. "And what the fuck is he doing here?" He nodded towards Linden, who was finally coming back to his senses.
"Don't worry Castiel, I've got it covered," Tallulah replied sweetly. Tory didn't doubt that.
CCC
"We have to go after him" Lyrah shouted, throwing herself at Fiver in an attempt to race after the Career group. They had long since left though, with a great head start. They would never catch up to the Careers in the maze. And once the Careers got to the Cornucopia field, they'd have no chance.
"Lyrah, calm down," Fiver said, grasping Lyrah by her shoulders and shaking her.
"Shaking her won't work." Cord rolled his eyes.
"Then you do something," Fiver shot back.
Cord went over to Lyrah, grasped her shoulders, and shook her. Lyrah glared at them, "You can stop shaking me now," she said calmly. "I'm okay now, well, kind of okay. We have to get Linden. There's no way I'm letting that bitch kill him. Look, I told you I had a plan, right?"
They both nodded. She hadn't explained to them what her plan was yet, but she seemed very excited about it.
"There are certain substances in all types of plants," Lyrah started out, "and if you manipulate them just right, you can make medicine."
"How's medicine going to help?" Fiver scoffed. Lyrah calmly explained exactly where she was going with it.
"Medicine isn't used just for good, you know. There're certain types of medicine out there that can be poisonous, deadly to the human system." She seemed to light up as she spoke about medicine. Being from Six, that was all she knew. "My parents are doctors. Well, my mom is. My dad was before he died. Anyway, dad made a hurtful drug, while mom found the cure for that drug. They were a great team. They found so many different cures for all types of diseases."
"Okay, but if we have a poison, how are we to make sure the Careers get it and no one else does?"
Cord was wondering that same thing. It was just like when there were poisonous berries in the arena. Usually there was no one stupid enough to eat the berries. Lyrah's eyes glinted, and Cord knew that she had a plan up her sleeve.
"There's a certain substance in corn, a deadly one, but my mom refuses to work with it because of how harmful it can be. But, it's our only chance, and I think, no, I know I can make it work. You have to trust me on this."
"We do Lyrah," Fiver finally sighed, "but we can't risk our lives for Linden. Not in the Games."
"He's my friend, Fiver, and I'll do whatever it takes to get him back alive." Lyrah seemed determined. Cord had never seen such defiance on her face before. It kind of scared him. The wild look in his eyes made her seem fierce. He had thought less of her during the pre-Games week, but now that she was in his alliance, he had seen how strong and determined she could be.
"So how do we get this substance from the corn?" Cord asked her, very interested in how she was going to do this. Her eyes lit up, and she reached over and snapped off a corn head. The other two watched her as she got to work stripping the out leaves off of it, revealing orange corn. "Wasn't the corn brown last time?"
"You know what, you're right." Lyrah replied, not taking her attention off of her work. "What do you think it means?"
"Maybe the color changes each day?" Cord suggested, knowing how stupid that idea sounded as soon as he said it.
"No, that's not it. It has to mean something. The Gamemakers don't do anything half-ass. Everything has a meaning. We just need to figure out what that meaning is," Lyrah said, piling all the stripped husks into a pile. "I'm going to need some water and some matches or something to start a fire."
"Take that up with the mentors," Fiver said, looking upwards. The sun shone down bright in her eyes. She looked away quickly. "Do you think the different colors of the corn kernels represents something?"
"Like what?" Cord asked, trying to figure out what she was getting at. He came up with nothing. He knew the girls were smarter than he was, though, so hopefully they could figure it out when he couldn't. The Gamemakers liked puzzles. They adored putting brain teasers in the arena to see who was smart enough to work them out.
"Didn't Linden mention something about a map?" Fiver finally said. The wheels in her head were turning, and that was all the others needed to start figuring it out. A spark of an idea could turn it into the missing piece. Just like Lyrah needed a single spark to start a fire.
"Yes!" Lyrah exclaimed, "and he said the names were all in different colors! What color did he say Jo's name was in? Brown?"
Fiver nodded excitedly. Cord was ecstatic too, they were going to figure this out.
"We need that map," Lyrah said, "we need to figure out what color everyone is."
"I bet if we had the map, we wouldn't need to know what color everyone is," Fiver pointed out. "But I still want to work this out. We should walk around and see what other kinds of colors the corn is."'
"You and Cord can, but I need to stay here with the corn. I can't leave in the middle of my work."
As if she said the magic word, a nice little silver parachute fell down at her feet. She gave an excited little gasp, standing up to do her version of the happy dance. One of them had a sponsor. That made Cord feel a bit better. It was always nice to know that someone was backing them. The more help they had, the longer they might be able to live for. Lyrah took her sweet time untying the string around the gift. Cord wanted to rip it from her and tear it open.
"What does the note say? Who's it from?" Fiver asked her.
Lyrah grabbed the tiny little card with the Panem seal on it, "Dear Lyrah, Fiver, and Cord- Hopefully this will help you. Best of luck." She broke off and put the card down on the ground, "there was no name, so I'm not sure who it was from." Finally, after several agonizing moments, she opened the box and fished out a box of matches and three canteens of water. "They were listening to me!"
Cord found it ironic that the people in Panem who were looking forward to their deaths were helping them by sending gifts to help them to survive.
Lyrah took out a match and struck it on the box. It sparked on the first try, and she lit the corn husks.
"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Fiver asked.
"What do you mean?"
Fiver stood up and waved her hands, "Hey Careers, over here! We're lighting a fire to show you exactly where we are! Come and get us!"
Lyrah asked, "You almost had Kendra's voice down perfectly, but no, I'm not worried. Well, I am, but not because of the fire. They have a map. They'll know where we are no matter what, and the other tributes won't attack us. We're too big of a group."
"Have I told you how smart you are?" Cord said, settling down on the ground next to her and picking at the hay.
"Not today you haven't," she smiled at him then blew lightly on the fire to get it raging. When she was satisfied with the heat, she took one of the metal canteens and held it over the fire to boil the water on the inside. Then she went to work bossing Fiver and Cord around. They were only too happy to oblige because it gave them something to do to pass time. "I think I can handle it from here. If you want to go explore the other paths and see what color the corn is over there, just don't go too far."
Okay, here's the deal, I'm going to try super hard to get more chapters posted. But I highly doubt that it will be any time soon. My life kind of fell apart in November during NaNo, I won't burden you with my personal issues, but that is why chapters have been sporadic. I can't promise a chapter to come any time soon.
Misty!
Random question: What do you think of the names Annaylse Haley and Cody Bennett?
