Basically, everyone figured out the requirement for the Inferno last time, so this one's going to be a bit more tricky. In fact, I doubt anyone will be able to figure it out: Necessity, Brynn, Jimmy, Taurus.
District 2
Aurum Corucent
I'm awoken by a beeping noise gradually growing louder. I let out a huge yawn and open my eyes. I look around and spot Ash leaning against the trunk of a tree. He seems half-asleep, staring into the distance with glazed eyes.
"Ash," I call. He doesn't seem to hear me, so I speak louder this time. "ASH." He blinks a few times, suddenly aware of his surroundings.
"What?" he asks. I tilt my head in the direction of the beeping noise, which I have determined to be a sponsor gift. Ash follows my nod to the parachute, which is tangled in the tree above me. "I'll get it," he says, and cracks his sore back before beginning to scale the tree. As he does, I start to rummage through our supplies to see what we could have for breakfast.
We managed to get decent loot at the Cornucopia, and it helps that we're currently camped out next to a lake. It's plentiful with both fish and water. I was a bit nervous about eating the fish at first since I doubted the Gamemakers would practically hand out free edible fish in something called the Hunger Games. Neither Ash nor I had thought to spend time at the 'edible fish' station during training, either.
Eventually, Ash decided to risk it. We caught a fish (which is pretty hard, considering the only fish in the lake are almost as big as us) and Ash tasted it. He survived, so I ate some as well, and now we've been chilling out on full stomachs.
And just to clear this up: I didn't suggest that Ash would be the guinea pig to see if the fish was edible. In fact, I heavily discouraged it. He ate it anyway, though, and it turned out fine.
I don't want to spend all of our time this morning fishing, so I decide to dig into our precious food supply. We managed to scoop up one backpack at the Bloodbath and a bag of apples on our way out. The backpack only contained a sleeve of crackers in terms of food, so it's a good thing we picked up the apples.
I decide that we can split an apple for now. I select one out of the bag and use one of my cleaner knives to split it close to a half. I jump when I hear a loud thud, almost dropping the two apple halves.
"Ash, you almost made me drop breakfast!" I complain, turning around to see Ash (who has jumped out of the tree) strutting over with a parachute in his hands.
"Sorry," he says, although he doesn't seem to be taking my complaint very seriously. He sits down next to me and plucks one of the halves out of my hands.
"Who's the gift for?" I question.
"Probably you," he says simply. "Not a lot of people have faith in me." I roll my eyes at his remark. We've had this argument so many times - he'll comment about his small odds or limited sponsors, I'll tell him it's not true, and then he gets mad at me for 'lying'. By now, I've learned not to mention it.
I watch closely as Ash opens the small metal box attached to the parachute. Inside are a number of vials filled with various-colored liquids. Sitting on top of them is a small slip of paper. Ash picks it up and reads aloud, "'use it wisely. From C.' Who's C?"
"Probably Corben," I decide, "he's my mentor."
"Then it's for you," Ash says, handing me the box. "I told you." I roll my eyes and begin looking eagerly through the vials. There are three, all about the size of my pointer finger. I see what Corben meant about 'using them wisely'. If I use this on something insignificant I'll be out. I begin scanning each of the labels.
"What are they?" Ash asks through a bite of apple.
"Poison," I inform. "The blue liquid will make someone ill and weak. The green one will kill someone 24 hours after being ingested. And the yellow one will kill someone instantly." Ash whistles.
"That must have cost a fortune!" he exclaims. "Does it have to drunken, though? Because, no offense Aurum, I don't think anyone's going to eat or drink anything you offer them."
"Of course not," I say, rolling my eyes. "The poison can also be effective when entering the bloodstream. I can throw it in a previous wound or coat my knives with it or something."
"Okay." Ash looks impressed. "As long as you don't pour it into my food."
"I wouldn't dare." We continue chowing on our meal, enjoying the sweet yet tart taste of the apples. "I'm a bit nervous about today," I admit.
"Why?" Ash asks.
"Well, we haven't been the center of a lot of action yet. We spent Day 2 in the Inferno, but nothing happened. And then yesterday we just hung out here all day, eating fish. The Gamemakers are going to force something upon us soon." Ash nods in agreement. As if on queue, Leandros's voice booms throughout the arena.
"Tributes, with the mellow day yesterday -"
"Mellow? There were two deaths!" Ash exclaims. I quickly shush him.
"- The Gamemakers have decided to spice things up a bit. A serious of bloodthirsty muttations will be released into the arena, with the goal of tracking you all down. Have a nice day!" The intercom clicks off, and I'm left staring at the sky in dread.
"I guess you were right," Ash says with a nervous chuckle. I nod, but I'm not pleased about my suspicions being confirmed.
"We're in for a tough day," I say and Ash solemnly nods in agreement.
District 2
Damien Hail
The moment we see Flora and Malakai walking toward us from the forest, Kata screams in excitement. She jumps up and races toward them. Malakai and Flora, who both seem very worn out, continue walking toward us. Despite being exhausted (and most likely dehydrated) Malakai grins wide at the sight of Kata.
"Kana, get water!" Kata shouts as she runs to Malakai. Kana immediately leaps up and grabs two bottles of water from where they are hidden underneath the blankets. I guess I'm the only one who realized she was too happy to call Kana 'Twelve' and actually referred to her by her own name.
Kana races out with the water in her arms, tailed by Markus. I sigh and stand up. Not wanting to be the lone Career remaining in the Cornucopia, I follow them.
When I reach everyone, Kata has tackled Malakai in a huge hug, which he quickly reciprocates. It's kind of amusing to watch Malakai struggling to drink his bottle of water whilst Kata is relentlessly hugging him. Flora giggles a bit as she takes a sip from her water. She breathes out a sigh of relief and splashes a bit of water on her ash-stained face.
"Man, it's so hot down there," she comments.
"I know," I chuckle. "You're not the only one who's been there." Flora smiles and looks around the circle. Her eyes land on Kana.
"You haven't been there yet, have you?" she asks her. Kana looks taken aback and hesitantly shakes her head. "I thought so. Trust me, you do not want to be down there. It changes you. I'm a completely different person now."
"How are you a different person?" I ask her, stifling a laugh. It's amusing to watch this fourteen-year-old girl who hasn't worked a day in her life spend a day in a place with a hot climate and act like a war veteran. Don't get me wrong; the Inferno is awful. I just don't think that it's so bad that it merits this sort of response.
Flora gives me a look with a mix of knowledge and pity as if I were a toddler asking her whether I can visit my old dog who we 'sent away to a farm'. It's so demeaning it immediately angers me. "You don't want to know," Flora says. I'm so surprised by her confidence that I can't think of a retort.
"I'm so glad we can finally play this game together," Malakai says once as Kata has removed herself from him. He takes a few chugs of water before continuing. "I was worried we weren't even going to see each other before one of us… you know." Kata nods in agreement.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," she says. "And it was so unfortunate, too. We probably would have stuck together if you had managed to kill someone in the Bloodbath." Malakai looks confused, so she elaborates. "I was sent down there because I killed someone. And then you stayed up here because you didn't. If you had killed someone, you would have been down in the Inferno with me. And then we would have both spent yesterday up here together."
"I guess…" Malakai says uncertainly. "But we still would have stuck together if we both didn't kill someone."
"I guess that's true," Kata shrugs. "But it's better to eliminate the competition while we're at it. Speaking of which, I know the girl from District 5 died yesterday. Did you manage to take her out?" Malakai opens his mouth to say something, but Flora eagerly takes this time to pipe up.
"Nope, that was me!" she announces, clearly pleased with herself.
"You?" Kata and I say skeptically in unison. Flora nods in excitement. Flora smiles and pats her on the back.
"Good work," she says. Kata immediately returns to chatting with Malakai, but Flora doesn't care; she's too busy basking in Kata's appreciation.
"So you really killed somebody?" I ask her. Flora nods at me with a wide grin on her face. "Huh, I guess you did change down there…" I'm partly joking, but Flora doesn't take it that way. She looks at me with those knowing, diminishing eyes again.
"I did," she says seriously. I roll my eyes and head back over to the Cornucopia. Behind me, I hear Kata returning to her usual self and giving out orders for the day.
"- I was thinking this day could be one we just relax during. We could do some long-term planning and maybe go to the lake and restock on water. Twelve, you know how to build a fire, righ - DAMIEN, LOOK OUT!" I barely have time to register Kata's warning before something heavy hit my chest and I go flying backward.
I hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of me. I don't have time to focus on the pain in my back, though, because a second later I look up and see a set of jaws open wide, ready to rip out a big chunk of my face. I let out a strangled cry and throw up my hands to push the beast's face back. I firmly grab the beast's two ears, effectively holding its face back.
It gnashes its teeth at my face, it's fangs only inches from my face. I yell out and try to get out from underneath the beast, so I can at least have a chance when fighting it, but its paws are firmly planted on my chest, pinning me down.
With a yank, the beast manages to move his head quick enough that one of his ears slips out of my sweaty palm. His face slams down toward mine and I instinctively reach my hand up to block him from eating my face. However, the beasts bites down on my hand hard. I hear a loud crack as the bone breaks and the beast's fangs sink even slower in.
Extreme pain blinds my vision. I hear a stampede of footsteps rush toward me as everything goes dark….
District 9
Brynn Rye
"Ouch!" Jimmy exclaims and yanks his hand away from the smoldering rock. He gingerly cradles his red palm, grimacing in pain.
"Why did you think that was a good idea?" I ask him, dumbfounded.
"My hand was tired, I wanted to rest it," Jimmy says with wide eyes.
"But the rock's smoking," I point out, and his eyes follow mine to the tendrils of smoke rising from the rock. "I would assume that means the rock isn't safe to touch."
"I didn't see the smoke," Jimmy says in a small voice.
"How about we find somewhere to rest?" I suggest, and Jimmy nods his head in agreement. "Preferably nowhere smoking." Jimmy frowns at my comment but follows me down the fiery path.
When Jimmy and I woke up, we were shocked. Neither of us had expected to land in the Inferno, considering what an uneventful day we had yesterday. I'm not sure what Jimmy did that morning, but all I did was gather some food, fill up my water bottle, hide from tributes, and (of course) eventually run into Jimmy.
Jimmy and I unanimously came to the unspoken agreement about sticking together. Neither of us had to say anything, the understanding just clicked. After I comforted him over Jet's death, we spent the day creating a shelter together. He eventually stopped most of his crying about Jet's death and we talked a bit about our families. We had a bit of stuff to talk about. We didn't know each other back in Eleven (well, we didn't very well. We had heard of each other) and could constantly make references to places in District Nine and inside jokes with our District.
I can't same that he's the same Jimmy I knew during the pre-games and heard about before either of us were reaped. But he has regained some of his spirit and joking nature. Although, he occasionally withdrawals back to that gloomy guy with a gray cloud over his head.
"Brynn, look!" Jimmy says, and points at two silhouetted figures not too far from us. One is huge and the other is tiny. I squint, trying to make out their identity. "Who do you think they are?" Jimmy whispers. I shrug.
"Beats me."
"Let's find out!" Jimmy exclaims and stupidly races off in the direction of the two. I throw out my arms in exasperation. After a moment, I reluctantly follow him (although at a much slower pace).
When I reach him, he's just begun talking to the two. They both look prepared to fight; the girl (who I can easily identify as the girl from District Three) is holding up her hands as if she's going to punch us, although I doubt she could do any damage. The boy is obviously Taurus from District Eleven. He also looks prepared, although it's much more threatening.
"- we could work together to survive the Inferno," Jimmy is saying. Taurus narrows his eyes.
"Why would we want to do that?" Taurus asks suspiciously.
"Actually, he makes some good points," the girl from District Three says to him. "I don't see why we shouldn't team up with them. All it does is better our odds." Taurus quickly pulls her away from Jimmy and leans over to talk to her.
"They could be trying to betray us, like Maudaline," Taurus whispers. I think he isn't aware we can still hear him. He's whispering but he's got a really loud voice, and it heavily echoes in the Inferno, which is basically a cavern. After Taurus's comment, the girl whispers back. She has a quieter voice, though, and I can't make out what she says. He replies, and this exchange goes on for several minutes.
"Should we just leave?" I ask Jimmy after a while. I'm about to take off when the turn back to us.
"We're up for it," the girl says, beaming. The boy grunts and kicks a small stone into a fire. "I'm Necessity," she says, holding out her hand for us to shake.
"Jimmy," Jimmy says and shakes her hand. "This is Brynn. We're from District Nine."
"Hi," I say. I'm still not comfortable with shaking this random tribute's hand, so I stay behind Jimmy.
"Aren't you the girl that had the huge alliance?" Jimmy asks her. Her smile falters a bit, but she nods. "So where are they?"
"Jimmy!" I hiss and try to send him signals with my eyes that this is not a conversation we should embark on.
"They're all dead," Necessity says flatly, and Jimmy's face comically drops. We're forced to endure an awkward moment of silence.
"I guess that doesn't bode well for us, then, does it?" Jimmy chuckles nervously. Nobody returns the laugh, and Necessity just sadly smiles at him.
"So, are we an alliance?" I ask when everyone's recovered from Jimmy's terrible attempt at light conversation. "I mean, are we going to stick together once as we get out of the Inferno? Or will we go our separate ways?"
"I guess we'll have to wait and see," Necessity decides. "I would love to be permanent allies with you guys, but Taurus -"
"Oh, no, I'd be fine," Taurus says dismissively. Necessity looks up at him, unsure.
"Are you sure? Because it doesn't seem like you've been very pleased with our temporary alliance -"
"I'M FINE!" Taurus bellows. When the echoes have died out, the Inferno is filled with dead silence. Jimmy and I exchange a nervous look. What did we get ourselves into? "I'm sorry," Taurus eventually says, guiltily. He awkwardly pats a shocked Necessity on the back, but she continues to gaze at him in horror.
"It looks like someone's on their period…" Jimmy jokes at Taurus's expense. I glance at Jimmy in shock at his stupidity. I expect Taurus to have another outburst at any moment but to my surprise, he laughs. He good-naturedly pats Jimmy on the back.
"How about we find somewhere to build a shelter?" Taurus suggests and begins leading him down a path. Necessity looks at me and shrugs before following them.
I'm a bit scared of Taurus, but I'm forced to follow them. I guess I just landed myself in an alliance with a madman and a girl with the some of the most rotten ally-luck I have ever heard of...
District 12
Kana Ashwood
Markus reaches Damien first and slams the blade of his sword into the beast's back. It lets out a strangled yelp and spits a collection of blood, saliva, and what grossly appears to be mucus, on Damien unconscious face. It collapses on top of Damien with his severed hand still in its mouth.
"Help him!" Kata shouts and Malakai and Markus immediately rush to heave the extremely heavy beast off of Damien's chest. As they throw the dead beast onto the ground, I run into the Cornucopia for supplies.
I begin rummaging through the collection of First-Aid supplies and picking up what could be useful. I pile bandages, gauze, and a few tins of random medicine. I don't have time to read the labels, so I just grab the first ones I see and hope for the best. Moving quickly, I race over to my allies. However, I immediately stop in my tracks when I see what's behind them.
None of them have appeared to notice them, so I urgently hiss at them until they look up at me. I shakily point a finger behind them. They turn to follow my finger and finally see the half-dozen beasts surrounding them.
One of them snarls and begins approaching. They all have dirty, brown matted fur and are almost as large as us. They remind me of dogs, except for their size, abnormally large muscles, and long, sharp fangs. And, of course, their blood-red eyes.
"Everyone," Kata begins in a slow, steady voice, "slowly retrieve your weapons from the Cornucopia. Move slowly." We all slowly back up, the beats watching us with unblinking eyes. Being so close to the Cornucopia, I'm able to spear fairly quickly. But the rest of the Careers are only half-way when Flora steps in front of them.
"I've got this!" she shouts, and swiftly removes her dagger from her sheath. The beasts are obviously provoked by the sudden movement, and the one closer backs up on his haunches, ready to leap out at her. Before he can, she swipes her blade at him. He steps back with incredible speed and reflexes. Flora's dagger misses. Flora, realizing the danger she's in, tries to slowly inch away, but the damage has been done.
The one in the center (who I've determined to be the leader) lets out a roar and all hell breaks loose.
The rest of the Careers rush into the Cornucopia for their weapons, which is almost as quickly flooded with muttations. They yip and snarl, and I can't see anything in the chaos. I hear a few weapon stands being knocked to the ground and the rattle of half the weapons hanging on the wall falling to the ground, dangerously close to my face.
Let's do the math: there are six, ultra-fast, ultra-strong mutts with jagged teeth and impossible reflexes. There are five humans, one of which only received a six as her training score. Almost all of the humans have slow speed and are currently weaponless. It doesn't add up. Not to mention, Damien is lying a few meters away, unconscious and slowly bleeding out.
I don't notice the mutt before it crashes into me, knocking me onto a table piled with fallen weapons. It's a miracle I don't pierce my body with any of the loose blades. I manage to slide off the table, tightening my grip on my weapon. I turn to the mutt and thrust my spear at it just as it leaps at me. It somehow twists away in mid-air. My momentum of the spears carries me forward, causing me to stumble slightly. I automatically swipe my spear as I turn around, hitting the beast in mid-air.
It's a good thing I turned when I did. Had I been a fraction of a second later, the thing would have hit my face. I managed to strike it with the shaft of my spear, though, saving myself.
It doesn't save the spear, though. The shaft splits in two. And the beast pops right back up, seemingly uninjured. I curse aloud and begin scavenging the table behind me for a stray spear. I only come up with a dagger, though. I guess it'll have to be enough.
The mutt procedes to leap at me again, but this time I slam the dagger into its neck in midair. The previous momentum still carries it onto me and its claws rake my chest, drawing blood. I drop the dagger and the dead beast falls to the ground. I cry out and gingerly touch the scrapes across my chest. They all sting like crazy, but they don't seem too deep. In fact, I've had deeper scrapes while skinning my knee in District Twelve.
But the pain is worse. Way worse than it should be. I'm aware I have a pretty low tolerance when it comes to pain, but I know there shouldn't be this much of a burning sensation after a few glances. I risk a gaze down at my chest and almost pass out at what I see.
The wound is already tinged with green. The small scratches have a misty green smoke rising from them, which definitely isn't good.
Poison.
Not bothering to worry about my allies and other mutts, I run toward the water supply. Based on the commotion, the fighting has died down a bit, meaning one side is winning. I don't even know whether it's the Careers or the mutts. Honestly, I don't even care. All I'm worrying about right now is the poison, and how if I don't get it out immediately, I can kiss my hopes of seeing my family again goodbye.
The barrel hiding the water has been kicked to the ground, leaving all of the bottles rolling around on the ground. I find the first one I see and yank off the cap. I don't hesitate by pouring the water on my chest.
The wound instantly feels better. Not great, but an improvement. I stop the flow of water and the pain instantly flares up again. Okay, I think, I have to actually wash it out. I begin rubbing the wounds while simultaneously pouring water over them, smearing the blood across my chest. Don't worry about cleanliness right now! I shout to myself.
When the water bottle is empty I throw it aside and release my hand. After a moment, I decide that I've extracted all of the poison. At least, enough to worry about my allies who may be in a more critical condition.
The fighting has stopped, but I haven't heard any cannons. Which either means we've defeated the mutts or my allies are slowly dying. I take a deep breath as I turn around, scared by what I may see.
It turns out I was right with both predictions. The mutts are lying dead on the ground, which is good. But my allies are also laying on the ground, either semi-conscious or straight unconscious.
Markus is lying on the ground, face down, next to two bloody muttations. I'm alarmed to see him so scratched up and covered in bite marks that his tattered clothes are barely on his body. His sword is gripped in his hand and I can see his chest rising and falling, which is technically good. He doesn't look to be in very good condition, though.
Malakai is leaning against a wall, moaning in pain while clutching a bite mark on his leg. His eyes are firmly squeezed shut, and he looks to be in a lot of pain. He doesn't look too bad, though; it's definitely a good sign that he's conscious.
Kata looks the worst; even worse than Markus, who is so battered he's technically naked. Kata is covered with blood from head to foot. I'm assuming at least half of that is from the mutts because it would be alarming if that much blood was at one time in her body. She's lying on her back, her eyes gently closed. She doesn't seem to be bleeding.
And of course, Flora doesn't seem to be anywhere. I could assume that she's buried under one of the piles of broken supplies, but I think the fairest assumption is that she was scared and ran off, abandoning her comrades and leaving me to deal with the aftermath.
Obviously, I can't tend to all of these people at once. As the sole conscious person, it is my duty to rejuvenate these guys. But I have to choose someone first. Malakai can obviously deal with it - he's griping about how much his leg hurts (which I don't doubt, I was suffering from only a few scratches and thought I was dying). I should check on Damien soon, his hand was severed. But I think the real debate is between Kata and Markus.
Markus is my only friend in this alliance, and I feel the automatic desire to help him first. But Kata is in much worse condition. And while I've never been too fond of her, I don't want to be blamed if she dies. But Markus is my friend…
Kana, stop pondering over who to help! A tiny voice (that suspiciously sounds like Morgan) says in the back of my mind. Both are going to die if you sit here thinking.
The voice is right. I take a deep breath and avoiding my instincts, pick up a water bottle and a handful of bandages and walk over to Kata. Inspecting her up close, I can make out her various wounds through the layer of blood. She has many and all of them seem to be very deep. I begin cleaning her up, moving at a sloppy and quick speed.
I quickly wrap up the wound with the bandages - I could do better, but I want time to help Markus, too. When most of Kata's wounds are sloppily bandaged, I rush over to Markus.
Luckily, while his wounds are high in number, none of them are very deep. As such, I don't need to worry about the bandage. What I do need to worry about is the poison. There's so much of it under his skin, all of him looks kind of green.
I try to wash his scratches the best I can, but I encounter a problem. Apparently, my poison was able to be washed out because it had just entered my bloodstream. Both Kata and Markus (and Damien and Malakai, too) have had poison running through their veins for a while. It doesn't come out with simple water.
Realizing there's nothing I can do to help Markus right now, I look around in helplessness. I'm alarmed to see that Malakai has fallen unconscious and is slumped against the wall. His moans were annoying at the time, but now, I miss them. I feel completely alone.
The only thing left for me to do is to help Damien. I drag him inside the golden horn. As I do, he leaves a smear of blood across the bright green glass. When I set him down inside, a small puddle begins to form around him.
At this point, the poison has crept up to his shoulder, giving his entire right arm a sickly green tinge. His skin is turning alarmingly pale, probably from blood loss.
Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about First-Aid. When Kata selected me to be in the Career pack, she forced me to spend some time at the medical station, calling me the 'designated medic'. I didn't have a lot of time to learn much, especially while balancing the required weapon and survival skills, but I do know the basics.
I dip into my minimal medical knowledge to tie a tourniquet around Damien's elbow. Unfortunately, I can't tell whether it's too tight or too loose. I carefully tie his stump up with a bandage, somewhat staunching the blood flow.
I've done all I can do. I sit in the back of the Cornucopia and look around desperately at all of my allies' lifeless bodies. What could I possibly do now?
Do I just have to sit here and pray for a miracle?
District 5
Kayden Vercetti
I push my way through the thick bushes in the forest. Their thorns scraped my exposed arms, and for the hundredth time, I wish I hadn't thrown my shirt and jacket away in the Inferno. What a dumb idea.
I've been searching for Weepo for two days now. And as the sun is beginning to set, I'm wondering whether it will turn to three. I never wanted to get separated from him, but I was anyway. And I don't want to sound judgemental, but I'm dumbfounded that he managed to survive without me. I'm not saying I'm some excellent survivalist, but Weepo is… you know how he is, so do I even have to go any further?
It's not like I'm ungrateful he's alive. It's the complete opposite. I'm just shocked, that's all.
I let out a cry of anger as my boot is sucked into a puddle of mud. I'm able to yank it out, even with my shoe intact. I breathe a sigh of relief. That could have been much worse. I'm already losing a jacket and shirt - I don't want to lose a shoe, too!
I must be pretty far into the forest at this point. It's becoming denser, and the filtered sunlight peeking through the branches is minimal. I'm beginning to wonder if Weepo would have even gone this far into the forest when I hear a snarling noise behind me.
I feel my heart begin to pound heavily as I slowly turn around. There, watching me with blood-colored eyes is a beast. I take a small step back and it immediately launches itself at me. I let out a high-pitched scream (which sounded pretty girl and the Capitol is probably having a good laugh over right now, but I don't care) and take off running.
The beast is easily able to keep up with me. I'm running at my hardest, leaping over bushes and roots. My arms are gaining hundreds of scratches from thorns as I run. I'm assuming the beast is getting scratched up as well. However, it seems unfazed by the obstacles and pursues me with no effort. In fact, I'm sure it could tackle me at any moment. I get the feeling that it's merely chasing me for the fun of it.
It's playing with its food, I think and gulp.
When I was first reaped and we were on our way to the Capitol, Georgia was trying to strike up a conversation between Gracelyn and I (it's still weird to think that she's completely gone, but that's beside the point). Somehow, Georgia thought it was a good idea to talk about our fears in the arena. Even more surprisingly, that was the conversation-starter that Gracelyn and I most latched onto.
I immediately said that if I wanted to die, it wouldn't be being tortured alive. That included a psychotic tribute torturing me for the fun of it (luckily, we didn't get anybody like that this year), being burned alive, and, of course, being eaten alive.
It strikes me as funny that the one thing I was most scared of is what's about to kill me. It makes me wonder if the Gamemakers listen to the conversations between tributes in trains and use that to mentally torment them in the arena. The more I think about it, the surer I'm becoming that the Gamemakers specifically planned to send this beast after me after hearing Gracelyn and I's conversation.
The beast snaps at my heels a few times, making me yelp and pick up the pace. I can practically hear the sniggers of the beast behind me. Seeming to have fun with this, every now and then during the chase, he'll act as though he's about to bite me and I yell in a high-pitched voice.
I was able to keep up my speed for a while. But eventually, my energy and reflexes started to die. I'm not surprised when my foot slips in the ashy remains of a fire and I tumble to the ground. The beast stops without stumbling and pounces on my chest, holding me down. I feel his claws begin to dig into my undershirt, and I begin whimpering. I know I probably look pathetic to the Capitol, but cut me some slack; I'm literally about to die through my worst fear imaginable.
The mutt leans down and opens his mouth, revealing a set of sharp white fangs. His warm, putrid breath triggers my gag reflex. I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the inevitable pain.
Suddenly, a warm liquid splatters my face. I peek open my eyes to see the dead beast lying on top of me. Just past him is none other than Weepo.
"Weepo," I breathe in disbelief. He smiles and nods. He holds out one of the swords in his hand.
"Here's your sword." I don't pay any attention to the sword. I wriggle out from under the beasts and give Weepo a huge hug. He recoils before tentatively accepting.
I'm back with my ally. Everything's alright again.
District 11
Taurus Hart
Honestly, I'm not thrilled about this new alliance with Jimmy and Brynn. It seems completely out of the blue and inconvenient. I didn't even expect Necessity to be open to it, considering our last large alliance didn't do so well. But she was very excited about it, so I decided to go along with it.
It's not that I don't like Jimmy and Brynn - I do. Jimmy's a fun guy and Brynn is pretty smart. I'd definitely be friends with them if it weren't for the fact we're fighting in a game where only one of us is allowed to live. And that means they could always be plotting to backstab me.
Currently, we're gathered on a flat-ish rock, trying to fall asleep. Necessity and Jimmy just finished talking, and now I'm actually beginning to doze off. It's pretty hard to sleep when I'm on a hot rock above lava and I'm suffering from dehydration and hunger. Not to mention the ever-present threat of muttations.
I jump up when the Capitol anthem begins. I groan and reposition myself. It had to begin just as I was falling asleep. I close my eyes and try to tune it out - no cannons fired today, so I know that I all it will be showing is the Capitol symbol.
Sure enough, the anthem ends quickly.
To try to fall asleep, my mind drifts off to calmer memories - hanging out with my family, sleeping in my bed at home. Even working in the fields are now what I'm considering relaxing. Compared to the Games, working in the fields is a five-star resort.
I try to imagine that I'm in my bed in the Capitol, with soft sheets and fluffy pillows. The air-conditioning is turned on, cooling me down as I doze off…
I'm at home. It was a long day of work, and I'm exhausted. I'm spread out on the bed and my eyes are beginning to close, but I'm focusing on the back of Hawk's head. He's sleeping. He's sleeping and he's safe…
With that, I finally manage to fall asleep.
Day 4 has come to a finish! Next is Day 5. I would say more, but I'm really tired right now and just want to get this posted. Remember: Just because I'm too lazy to ask sponsoring questions today doesn't mean you shouldn't review! It still affects your character's fate!
What did you think of this chapter? No deaths, but almost all of the Careers are in critical condition...
EULOGIES:
None.
Day 1:
24th: Remus Carter (6)
23rd: Lexi Holstein (10)
22rd: Clara Maggins (7)
21st: Garnet Reed (1)
20th: Kalina Eden (11)
19th: George Fraga (10)
Day 2:
18th: Maudaline Barnett
Day 3:
17th: Jet Winters (12)
16th: Gracelyn Mitchell (5)
Day 4:
None.
REMAINING TRIBUTES/KILL LIST:
Flora - 1
Aurum - 1
Damien - 1
Necessity - 0
Weepo - 0
Kata - 2
Malakai - 0
Mika - 0
Ash - 1
Markus - 1
Brynn - 0
Jimmy - 0
Taurus - 0
Kana - 0
REVIEW!
- Lilah