Day 5:
Hold tight
Wait till the party's over
Hold tight
We're in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house
"Do you smell something burning?" Troy asks the next morning as we split the last of the bread for breakfast.
"Everything in this arena is burning." The soft bread sticks to the roof of my mouth. I chase it down with a tiny sip of water.
"Yep!" Ethan wipes his lips with his sleeves. "Hell, I don't think I can smell anything else anymore. My smeller is broken."
"You mean your nose?"
"Yes..."
Troy doesn't respond; I think he might be a little tired of Ethan's antics. I personally don't mind. It's not like Ethan is being annoying on purpose. Or maybe he is. I feel a little torn, because I want to laugh along with Ethan, but can't help but stay gloomy with Troy.
"Does the devil mask help? " I fiddle with mine a little, brushing some dirt off it.
"Hey, I said I can't smell, not see."
"Well, with the mask, you certainly can't see."
Troy's voice trails off when he hears that faint little beep. By now, we all know what it means. Only a few small gifts float down this time. A longsword and a first aid kit for Troy, and a bottle of water for me. Perfect; we were starting to run low of water anyways. And who says no to an extra weapon? Or medicine?
Troy gives the sword a few swings. "I hope I don't have to use this."
"Why?" Ethan bites into a tomato, spraying juice everywhere. "Swords are fucking badass."
"You get what I mean."
I start packing everything up. "Look, if you don't want to use the sword, we've got other stuff. Like a machete, or a knife..."
"No, no!" Troy shakes his head. "It's fine. I'm more of a healer though."
I glance down at the bandages stuck to my clothes, coated with bits of dried blood. Troy just stares at me for a bit, not saying anything. Finally, he asks, "How do you feel?"
"Um...I feel normal, I guess."
"You're not dizzy, right?"
"No."
"Does that mean I'm actually good at patch jobs?" Ethan giggles. "Doctor Ethan Keddy is in the house!"
"We should probably change the bandages later," Troy muses. "They're what, a day old?"
"Two days," I mutter. Yeah, I don't feel proud of that either.
Troy grimaces. "We better change them soon then. Good thing we have plenty."
It's an unspoken agreement between the three of us that it might be best to go camp somewhere else. As we get ready to leave, there's a low rumbling sound as a nearby rock formation comes crashing down. Some of the boulders spill into a pool of lava. I shudder, only to think of what might've happened if they landed on us.
"We need to get moving," I declare. Nobody disagrees.
The scenery is much different from before, so at least we're going somewhere new. If anything, it seems empty, as if the Gamemakers didn't bother to leave anything here. Are we even supposed to be here? This just can't be a sign of laziness, right? There's got to be a catch.
Perhaps I'm just being paranoid. Again.
Troy taps me on the shoulder. "Do you hear that?"
"Huh?" I see Ethan cocking his head to the side. "No, I don't."
"You need to be more quiet. It's very faint."
Ethan stops talking and I pick up on a very low humming sound. If I didn't know I was supposed to be listening for something, I would never have noticed at all. "Yeah, I hear it too."
"Well, what is it?" Ethan pouts.
"I don't know."
Troy seems nervous and honestly, I am too. I knew there was a catch! "But...let's not get too ahead of ourselves, right? If we notice anything different, we'll leave."
"This is different," Troy grumbles, but he follows us onward.
With how scarce scenery is, the large wall of rocks is pretty hard to miss. But why a wall? Did somebody build it? I have my doubts. I can't think of anybody stupid enough to go out here, other than me, of course. Then the Gamemakers must've put it here...
"Well, looks like the end of the road for us." Ethan whistles as he sticks his hands in his pockets. "Time to turn around."
I'm not ready to turn around yet. "We could probably cross it."
"Yeah, but why would we?"
"I think what Ethan's trying to say is that this might be the boundaries of the arena," Troy says in a monotone voice. "We're not allowed any further."
Oh right. Boundaries. This place can't go on forever. "I guess that makes a lot of sense."
Troy heaves his sword onto his shoulder. "Well, let's go. We should've changed route a while ago."
"Wait. Do you guys see that?"
I shake my head and Ethan rolls his eyes. "Oh please. Don't fuck with me, VR, I know you can see it! That little squiggly thing. Right there! Wait, it just disappeared...no, it's back! See?"
"Squiggly...thing?"
"Okay, look." Ethan begins to point vaguely. "There's a gap in the rocks. Right aboutttttt...there! And if you look, the squiggly comes back. It's like a light blue, maybe white! There it is!"
"I don't get it," Troy huffs. "I don't see anything."
"Ughhhhhh. Lemme show you!"
Ethan crawls through the gap in the rock wall, conveniently big enough to fit a person. He begins to point again, but where? I don't see it. All I see is rocks, and there's plenty so I can't imagine Ethan would care too much about them. But then he's reaching for something, and his palm presses down, as if there's a wall in front of him we can't see. He freezes up, reaches forward...
Then the wall bursts to life to reveal a large hexagonal forcefield that throws Ethan backwards.
It's enough to send several stacks of rocks crashing down, one that covers Ethan entirely as he slams into it. I'm also thrown back as well, nearly tripping my own feet. But when the dust settles, the forcefield is gone. All the remains is scattered rocks, and a familiar piece of black fabric sticking out from underneath.
"ETHAN!"
I throw everything I'm carrying to the ground. Troy follows close behind, absolutely shocked. I start pulling off boulders and throwing them to the side, but some of them are too heavy. I just snap my fingers at Troy. "Don't just stand there! Help me! Help!"
Once the boulders are cleared away, I can see Ethan's mangled body lying underneath. He's all bruised and his arms and legs are all lying at weird angles. His eyes flutter open and closed, before he lets a small amount of blood dribbling out from his lips.
"Oh shit," is all I can say. "Oh shit."
Ethan laughs to himself; I can see how loosely his front teeth hang. "Shit...good shit or bad shit?"
"Oh no, no, no, no. Bad." I fumble with my backpack straps. Why won't this stupid thing open? "It's bad...it's bad..."
"Bad shit..." Ethan begins to cough violently then flips his head sharply to the side, before wincing in pain.
Tears flood my eyes. The bandages; where are they!? I can't find them!
"Did...I make...sad?"
"I...Ethan, wait..."
Ethan coughs one last time, sending more blood everywhere. His eyes have become unfocused and his body relaxes over so slightly...no! No, this cannot be happening!
Somebody grabs my arms. "VR, come on! let's get out of here!"
"No! I'm not leaving! He's not dead!"
The cannon finally fires as Troy reaches for my shoulders, forcing me to look straight at him. "He is now."
"But...but..."
"We're not staying here any longer. Let's go."
I pick up the bow and the quiver I threw to the ground, wiping my eyes with my jacket sleeve. Troy's the one leading the way this time. I don't have the energy to argue to say anything. I can't believe what just happened...
Someone needed me. They were at death's door and they were counting on me to save them.
But I couldn't.
Troy stops walking for a moment to let me catch up. He wraps his free arm around me. "Hey...look, it's..."
"No. It's not."
"You didn't even know what I was going to say."
"You were gonna tell me that I'm fine and that it's gonna be alright," I hiss, wiping away more tears. "But it's not. It's never gonna be alright again."
11th place: Ethan Keddy, District 6. Crushed by falling rocks.
Yes, this death really hurt to write. I knew Ethan was always gonna be very popular because he was such a free spirit. He was very upbeat, comical, and laidback, with similar traits to another fan favourite, Jane. I loved writing him and VR because they had such different personalities and outlooks on life, which made for a fun contrast, and he brought some more lightheartedness to an otherwise very gray and gloomy story. Rest in peace, bud.
Alliances:
Careers: Cindra, Anthony, Quincy
The Beans: Sitka, Maryann
Three Bs: Tyrone, Whyllis
Awkward Duo: Troy, VR
Lone Wolf Opal: Opal
Kills:
Cindra: 4 (Bartleby, Ellie, Magaz, Leo)
Anthony: 2 (Gayle, Basil)
Quincy: 2 (Flynn, Teff)
Karen: 1 (Abril)
Tyrone: 1 (Delta)
Magaz: 1 (Karen)
Whyllis: 2 (Damask, Jane)
Other Causes: 1 (Ethan)
And another one bites the dust! Did the death in this chapter surprise you? How do you think it will impact VR and Troy's alliance?
And now, we're officially down to the Final 10 tributes! And it only took five days! Times really flies doesn't it? See you all in the next chapter!
-Vr
