Archie Razida-13(D8M)
I….I can't believe what I just saw, after everything he's survived after everything all of us have been through how could Connor just kill him like that. I should have known, my gut was screaming at me not to trust Connor and even my brain knew that her story was weak and full of holes. All I had to do was think logically and none of this would have happened, Topaz would still be alive and that lying bitch would be a stain on the ground but now he's dead and she's a stain on me and my district. I have to be the one to fix this.
I turn my back on the cornucopia and the feast table as the boy from Ten darts in and starts to shovel bottles into a cloth sack as another figure watches him from a little ways back, but I honestly couldn't care less about them right now. Ignoring them completely I turn my attention towards where Connor stands unmoving over the lifeless forum of her one-time friend and ally whose blood covers her hands in a terrifying reminder of her treachery.
I start to slowly make my way towards her but as soon as I do she looks up and offers me a satisfied grin and my rage boils over as my patience abandons me. Acting on pure instinct and fueled by rage I drop my sword to the ground and charge her with all the fury and strength I have left in me only to have her follow suite and charge at me too.
I run at her for everything I'm worth but once I'm close enough to strike I decide to throw her for a loop as I lunge at her legs with an infuriated snarl. My strike seems to be successful as I manage to catch her off guard and send her tumbling to the ground with a vicious strike to her knees that's so forceful it drives the air from my lungs and forces me to take a second to recover and catch my breath. Fortunately, she's in just as bad a state as I am so I'm able to recover and press my advantage while she attempts to cradle her rapidly swelling knee and cries.
Within a couple of seconds, I'm back on my feet as I press my advantage and quickly deliver a series of quick but powerful kicks to her wounded knee as I let all of my anger and resentment come rushing out to crash down on the one person I truly thought I could trust. Fortunately, for her I'm not nearly far enough gone to let my rage totally consume me and after I'm sure I've done enough damage that she's not going to slip away I pull back and decide to get some answers, she owes them to me and I'm not going to finish her off until she tells me why.
"How could you do that Connor? Topaz was your ally; he was your friend for crying out loud. How could you just kill him like that for no reason?"
"Th….There's no such thing as a friend in the arena Archie. Eventually, he was going to become an enemy just like you did so I decided to take him out before he had the chance to do it to me."
"How can you be so cold? After everything you've said and done for the sake of your 'friends', how can you just turn around and kill them like this?"
"Because it's either you guys or me and I'm not ready to die. That's why I spilled Audrie's guts all over the sand and that's why I slit Topaz's throat."
"I can't believe what I'm hearing. I trusted you, Connor, we all did."
"Then all of you were fools. Allies and friends are only good for one thing in the games, staying alive. After an ally is no longer useful you have to be willing to cut bait and run or you're going to end up dead. If you'd paid attention to what Thomas taught us during training you'd know that."
I can't believe she could so cold and heartless, then again maybe she's always been this way and I was too gullible and foolish to see it. No, it can't be that simple; she might have been able to fool Topaz and me but Audrie would have zeroed in on it in a second if she'd been lying. No this has to be a recent decision on her part probably brought on by the fact that as soon she made it into the top eight she was finally able to see a real and viable path to the top and that path was apparently paved with the bodies of the people she called friends.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you're so shocked by my actions Archie. After all even in an arena full of children you've always been the most childish, the most foolish. I guess it was just more of that blind dumb luck that people like you always seem to have in the games."
"People like me? In case, you haven't noticed Connor your life is about to be ended by a 'childish fool'. All your ridicule and bluster can't save you from paying for what you did to Audrie and Topaz. My only regret is I can't make it hurt you as much as your betrayal hurt them, or as much as it hurt me."
"The only sad thing about that is you're still to childish to understand any of this. You still can't accept the fact that this alliance, that this friendship had the same expiration date as the ones with Topaz and Audrie did. But I guess if I have to die at least it's at the hands of someone with their ideals and morals intact, at least it's at the hands of someone with a conscious."
"Words are wind and nothing you say is going to save you, Connor."
"I'm not trying to save myself I'm just….You know what it doesn't matter. Kill me and be done with it, I've said my peace."
I feel the first string of tears welling up in my eyes as I drop down and pull Connor back to her feet with a tug. Once I've got her back up I spin her around and wrap my forearm around her throat and start to squeeze and while there's a fair bit of initial resistance and thrashing I'm able to keep her under control and as my grip tightens her resistance lessens. After a little while her movements cease and the only indication I have that she's still alive is the quick and ragged gasps escaping her lips as her brain forces her to fight to for every breath.
"I'm sorry I have to do this Connor."
I pull down and back as I try to cut off the last remnants of her air flow but as I try to reestablish my footing and position I feel a sharp pain explode out of nowhere that quickly consumes my groin and leave me balled up on the ground in pain. It only takes me a few seconds to realize what happened and I can't believe I was stupid enough to expose my groin in such a foolish manner. As I do everything I can to suppress the pain coursing through my body Conner is able to steal vital time to recover and with every breath, she takes my chances of finishing her off get slimmer and slimmer.
"No Archie I'm the one who's sorry."
She manages to choke out her apology between breaths and while I'm still in too much pain to respond I can guess what's about to happen. A few seconds later she lunges at me and wrestles me onto my back and unfortunately I allow her to pin one of my arms underneath me too. Once she's got me where she wants me she drops her knee and all her weight down on my other arm and renders it useless too just as she pulls the same blood covered knife she used to kill Topaz out of the folds of her tunic.
"NO, PLEASE CONNOR NOOOOO!"
My protests fall on deaf ears and with tears streaming down my face I stare up into the cold and unfeeling eyes of my one-time ally as she jams the knife into the side of my throat and tears it open. The last thing I see in my life is her cold and unflinching stare.
~BOOM~
Dargo Avene-12(D10M)
This seems like it's been too easy, I mean one cannon out of a possible three not counting me or Quanta in nearly five minutes is a little sketchy. Also outside of the initial glance, I caught of what I think was another tribute at the start I haven't seen anyone or anything else. I mean I'm more than happy to scoop up as much of the water as I can without having to worry about anyone but it's a little unnerving to be the only one taking advantage of a feast.
Regardless I stuff as many of the bottles as I can into the bag before slipping it on and filling my free hand with another gallon jug. Once I'm full to capacity I scoop up my pitchfork in my free hand and turn to look for Quanta just in time to see a deranged looking girl barrel into me like a freaking train. Instantly I'm sent flying back into the cold and unbending rock of the feast table where my pack is split open leaving me covered in water and my back screaming in pain.
I manage to get back to my feet just as the girl who ran into me is regaining hers and to my surprise I don't see any of the malice or rage that I'd expected to see; no, the only thing I see is the wide fear filled eyes of the girl from Twelve darting around the area in a kind of overstimulated rush.
I can tell she's dangerous but unfortunately, she knocked my pitchfork out of my hand when she ran into me and even more unfortunate is the fact that she's now standing directly between it and me. My mind starts racing as I try my hardest to think of some way to get around or if need be through her to get it back without getting myself killed in the process and while I can think of a ridiculous number of ways to do it all of them seem to end the same way in my mind, with me hurt or possibly even dead.
"Where are the mutts?! Where are they?!"
"I….There are no mutts here."
"Liar, the mutts are everywhere. They set this trap and now they're waiting for us, and you know it too."
Ok, this girl has obviously lost it but I'm not sure if that makes things better or worse. My only real chance to survive is to get around her or at the very least get close enough to my weapon that I can take her out but with how paranoid and unhinged she's acting I'm not sure it's safe for me to try and talk my way through her. Then again if I can't get her to move out-of-the-way I'll have to try to go through her and hope for the best and while we're close to the same size there's no way for me to be sure what will happen if we did end up fighting, especially when she's clearly not all there.
I'm not sure how I'm going to get out of this but lucky for me I don't have to decide, the unlucky part, however, is that I'm only spared the burden of deciding because she rushes me in what's clearly a hysteria induced madness as she bares her teeth like an animal and tries to bite me as she slams me back into the unyielding stone table.
My initial reaction is to push her off so I can try to get away but that ends up being an awful idea because as soon as I put my hands on her she sinks her teeth into the right one and tears a chunk of flesh out before driving her knee up into my gut with surprising force. The mind numbing pain in my back quickly spreads to my hand and my stomach as she continues to deliver blow after blow to my unprotected and incredibly vulnerable midsection.
I'm not sure how long she keeps attacking because eventually the excruciating pain in my sternum fades into numbness as she continues to reign down a flurry of sharp and powerful knees. Finally and almost mercifully she stops to catch her breath and I have the opening I need to retaliate. I cock my uninjured hand back and punch her in the face as hard as I can and while my strike manages to graze her nose the majority of the force is absorbed by her cheek and her jaw and while her head does snap back due to the sheer viciousness of the hit all this does is drive her over the edge as she resumes her gut-wrenching assault.
This time, I don't get a chance to cover my stomach and her first strike drives the air from my lungs and each following strike prevents me from regaining my breath. After another dozen or so strikes my vision starts to go dark and while I continue to feebly attempt to stop her assault each of my strikes is more useless than the one before it. Finally, in an act of sheer desperation, I summon everything I have left and throw my shoulder into the side of her head which disorients her just enough for me to attempt to wiggle out of her grasp.
I manage to get free and make a desperate lunge for my weapon but I come up just a bit short as the tips of my fingers brush against the cold steel as my face collides with the hot and unforgiving sand. I try to scramble forward and scoop it up but she's in me before I have the chance and before I can even react she's digging her teeth into the soft flesh of the back of my neck while she digs her knees into the lower part of my back that has been obliterated by the unforgiving stone of the feast table.
I feel my blood running down the sides of my neck as I thrash about in a vain attempt to break free but just when everything seems to be conspiring to end my life her mouth goes slack and she falls over on top of me. For a moment, I'm not sure what happened and it's only once the sweet sound of a cannon blast lets me know I'm still alive.
I lay there under her for a moment as I try to catch my breath only to hear the sound of approaching footsteps that seem to cause my throat to tighten up in a futile attempt to hide the fact that I'm still alive from whoever is closing in on me. Taking a deep breath I look up just enough to get a fix on my weapon and a few seconds later I explode up and crawl forward as fast as I can. I scoop up my pitchfork before springing onto my knees and spinning around to find the relieved face of Quanta staring back at me.
"Thank goodness you're ok. I thought I'd lost you for a second."
"What….What the hell took you so long to help me?"
"I didn't see her coming at you so once you got there and started loading your pack I turned my attention to the fight between the tributes from Eight."
"The boy I saw at the beginning was from Eight?"
"Yeah and his district partner did a real number on him. I was able to drive her off but it cost me most of my bolts and I used the last one to save you."
"I….Thank you."
"Thank me later, right now we need to get out of here before she comes back."
She offers me her hand and quickly pulls me to my feet despite the pained protests coming from both sides of my lower sternum. Once I'm back on my feet I quickly hobble back to the feast table where I attempt to gather up some of the remaining water even as Quanta screams at me to forget it and run.
"We need it Quanta; we'll never survive without it."
"Don't be stupid Dargo! We need to get out of here while we still can."
I know she's right but damn it so am I but before I can tell her that she lets out a terrified shriek which is followed by an eerie silence. I drop the bottles in my hand and spin around in time to see the girl from Eight standing over her motionless body with a blood-stained rock held tightly in her hand. Her clothes are torn to shreds and her knee is swollen and purple, hell she's even got a part of one of Quanta's bolts sticking out of her shoulder but none of that seems to have stopped her, hell from the way things look it didn't even slow her down.
She slips her foot under Quanta and flips her over on her back before bringing up her rock to strike and in a moment of pure stupidity I lunge at her in a desperate attempt to stop her. I may end up having to kill Quanta myself because of this but there's no way I could let someone I care about, someone I've come to think of as family die like that. For better or worse I'm not going to let it happen without a fight, I just hope this is a fight I'm able to win.
Connor McCormick-13(D8F)
I'm caught completely off guard by the sudden and surprisingly ferocious attack unleashed and by the time the initial shock finally wears off I'm a world of trouble. Despite my size advantage, I quickly find myself on my stomach with my face buried in the sand as he tries to wrap his arms around my neck and while I'm able to wriggle free from his first attempt I end up exposing my injured shoulder to him which is exactly the wrong thing to do. Instead of choking me he decides to dig his fingers into my wounded shoulder just below the bolt, he digs in deep and then without a hint of hesitation he tears my arm open with a surprisingly vicious tug.
The pain in my arm is the most intense and mind numbing experience of my life and for the first time during the games, I actually feel like I might die. Even when Archie was strangling the life out of me earlier I never doubted for a second that I'd be able to find a way to survive, even as the light started to fade from my world I never even fathomed that those could have been the finally moments of my life, but this a whole new level of excruciating. The pain gets so bad that my body starts to convulse and thrash in a largely futile attempt to dislodge my attacker and bring an end to the white-hot burning sensation that's quickly spreading from my shoulder to the rest of my body.
I have to get him off of me before the pain causes me to pass out and while it seems impossible to do with the level of pain I'm currently in the only chance I have is to calm myself down and think. If I keep thrashing around like a scared animal I'm only going to make things worse for myself, I've got to keep my wits about me or this really will be the end and I'm still not ready or willing to face my death, at least not here and now.
I take a couple of deep breaths before forcing myself to bite down on my lip as hard as I dare in a desperate attempt to distract myself from the pain in my arm and shoulder. It only takes a few seconds for my mouth to be flooded by the warm and salty taste of my blood as my teeth dig deeper and deeper into the raw, sun-blasted mess that my lips have become but the pain in my mouth does help to momentarily ease my other pains and that's all I really need it to do. Taking advantage of the momentary relief I force myself up onto my knees and quickly throw myself back as hard as I can in an effort to jar my assailant loose.
Luckily the sudden burst of energy that took me from writhing in pain to counter attacking catches my opponent as unprepared as he caught me earlier and the force of my attack is enough to break his grip on me and while his left-hand remains buried in the gash on my shoulder the sudden absence of his right hand allows me to adjust my position enough that I'm able to force him to relinquish his hold completely.
As soon as I feel the sweet relief of his fingers slipping out of my wound my body is overcome with a rush of energy and while my body is screaming at me to get away and recover I'm able to force myself to resist the temptation as I quickly straddle my prone enemy and place my knees on either side of his torso in an effort to pin his arms down. Fortunately, my quick thinking allows me to claim this crucial advantage and as I stare down at my foe I'm taken aback by the defiant glare in his eyes.
For a brief moment I'm paralyzed by what I see, he has the same defiant and determined look in his eyes Archie had, the same self-satisfied air about him. Even in defeat he's still just as confident and determined as he was when he lowered his shoulder and barreled into me in a vain and futile attempt to save that puny little runt from Three. Even now with his life about to end he's still so calm and in control, hell even Archie begged for his life at the end but he won't, why?
"Aren't you going to beg me to let you live?"
"Why should I?"
"Everyone else I've fought has; tributes three times better than you begged me not to kill them."
"I'm the one who made the decision to fight you and I did so knowing full well what could and probably would happen because of it. I wasn't going to watch you kill my friend just to save myself and this is the result of that decision and I accept it."
"You were willing to throw your life away for her? Why would you sacrifice your own life for someone who'd probably just as soon kill you as return the favor?"
"Because some things are more important than winning, like being able to die knowing you did the right thing even when the wrong thing was safer and easier."
"You're just as gullible as everyone else. No one is going to remember that you sacrificed yourself to save someone who's going to end up dead too, but they always remember the victor."
"Only until someone more violent and treacherous comes along. After that, you'll be just another sad and lonely person who's haunted by the mistakes of her past."
I've heard enough of this crap; I'm not going to be lectured by someone who was too stupid and childish to understand that you can't have friends in the Hunger Games. He wants to die protecting his friend then he can, after all, what kind of person would deny someone so caring such a passionate and thoughtful last request?
I slip my hand inside the folds of my tunic and grasp the hilt of my knife. I pull it out and whimsically trace a line across his throat leaving a small trail of blood where I intend to cut. Looking down into his eyes for the final time I receive the same defiant stare as before and despite my distaste for what I'm doing, I know it's something that has to be done. With a flick of my wrist, I cut through his soft flesh as a thin trail of blood starts to seep out through the cut.
I stare down into his face as the color starts to slowly drain out as the small trickle starts to pick up steam and before long his entire neck is covered in the hot and sticky red mess. As I stare down at my handy work a low grunting sound starts to ring out around me and while I initially assume it's the final desperate groans of the boy beneath me I've never been more wrong in my life because a few seconds later I hear a soft clicking sound followed by the unmistakable patter of footsteps behind me.
I quickly jump back to my feet and spin around in time to see the rage filled eyes of the girl from Three staring back at me her crossbow cocked and ready to fire. I don't have time to dodge hell I barely have time to scream as she pulls the trigger and sends a blood covered bolt sailing into my head with a thump….
~BOOM~
Quanta Bomm-13(D3F)
The girl from Eight crumbles as her knees buckle mere seconds after my bolt connects and while I'm not initially sure she's dead a few seconds later I'm greeted by the roar of a cannon and I allow myself to release a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding in. I stand there stunned for a few seconds as I wait for the master of ceremonies to announce me as the victor and it's only after hearing the a blood-choked gargle that I realize why nothing's happened yet, Dargo is still alive!
I toss my crossbow aside and rush to his side where I find his warm and friendly smile waiting for me even as a steady stream of blood continues to flow out of the cut on his neck. Acting on what I remember about stopping bleeding injuries from training I immediately tear off the cleanest sleeve on my tunic and attempt to wrap it around his neck but he clutches my arm and stops me before I can.
"It….It won't do any good to try and stop it now. The cut's too deep."
"I can still slow it down enough that the Capitol doctors can fix it, though."
"No….No, you can't."
"Yes, yes I can."
"You might be able too if I was going to win, but I'm not Quanta, you are."
Why is he saying this? He has to know that there's no way I could ever live with myself if I lived and he died let alone kill him myself. He has to know that I'm going to do everything within my power to save him and there's really nothing he can do to stop that….Except what he's doing right now.
"Sorry, Dargo but this isn't going to work. I'm going to stop the bleeding and then I'm going to find a way to get you out of here and back home to your mom and sisters."
"What….What about your family Quanta?"
"What about them?"
"Don't you think they'd like to see you again just as much as my family would me?"
"My family will understand why I didn't come home, they probably never even dared hope I would."
"Well, then they're going to be in for the surprise of their lives here in a couple of seconds."
"Don't talk like that Dargo, please don't."
"Quanta you're the smartest, kindest, and most passionate person I've ever met but there are some things even a smart, kind and passionate genius like you can't fix and death is one of them."
"Dargo….I'm begging you, please….Please don't die on me."
"You know I was always worried I'd die before my mom and sisters ever told me anything about my dad. Now I can get my questions answered straight from the horse's mouth. Thank you for giving me that opportunity Quanta."
"I didn't do anything, though. It was all you, it was all you Dargo."
"Can you do me a favor Quanta? Will you tell my mom and my sisters I love them, and will you tell them that dad and I will look in on them from time to time? Will you do that for me please?"
"Yes, I promise I'll tell them Dargo."
I cradle his head in my lap as the last vestiges of light start to fade from his eyes and I'm there to hear the last words one of the greatest friends I've ever had and one of the greatest people I'll ever know uttered his final words.
"My life wasn't perfect but at least it was good, I can't wait to finally meet my dad."
~BOOM~
"Ladies and gentlemen allow me to present to you the victor of the One Hundred and Third annual Hunger Games, District Three's Quanta Bomm!"
A/N: There you have it everyone, the victor of the 103rd Hunger Games is Quanta Bomm. A special thanks to Ripple237 and everyone else who submitted or just read along and shared in this adventure with me. I still have the aftermath and the epilogue/eulogy chapter to finish up but for the most part this puts a neat little bow on my 4th story and I couldn't have done it without the support of everyone so from the bottom of my heart I thank you for everything.
Now I hope to have the prologue chapter for my next story up this weekend or at the latest by Monday and as long as Game of Thrones doesn't consume my life like it has the past three weeks I fully intend to meet that deadline so be on the lookout for it if you're interested in submitting to my next SYOT :D
Other than that as always please review and let me know what you thought of the story, the final showdown and of course of the newest victor to join the illustrious winners of my previous stories in Kimma, Joyce and Verity. :D
