F4: LINLEY CRESTA
I'm the first one up, again. The Gamemakers will be expecting some action today, since there were no deaths yesterday. Reetan and Marius said that we are going to hunt until we get at least one other alliance down, and today, they agree, we will all be hunting. We are taking almost all of the supplies with us, though. That was my idea. Nobody will get more than a day's worth of food from our remaining stash, while we will each be carrying at least three days' worth each. No weapons will be left behind. They'll be with us or broken into tiny pieces.
"Ebony?" I whisper into the girls' tent. I hear a muffled groan and one of the sleeping bags rustles. It's not the person I was looking for, though.
"Linley, is it even light outside yet?" Stavren asks. I nod and move aside from the tent entrance, letting the pale sunlight stream through the flap. Stavren covers her eyes for a moment, and then blearily crawls out of the shelter. "I guess we'd better start getting up. I heard Reetan on the watch last night saying that we are planning to hunt from the first hour of sunlight until we get a kill or two, so be prepared." I groan inwardly, but I hide it. Stavren is basically the leader of the female Careers, and Ebony and I are determined to hide any weaknesses from her.
Her movement wakes Ebony, and my feelings of anxiety dissipate. I'm nervous around violent, determined Stavren, but Ebony told me once that I remind her of her cousin Megan, and I don't think she would ever kill me. I couldn't ever hurt her, either. I don't think I could hurt anyone, even if my life depended on it. Eventually, it will. Maybe I could win these Games like Aunt Annie did- without having to kill in the final battle, or at all. Both older girls brush past me as they emerge into the morning chill.
"Ugh," Stavren mutters, "Reetan said we'd go hunting early and now look- all the girls are up before any of the guys!" Ebony snickers, and even I crack a smile. Irony, it seems, is funnier when you are always two minutes from death.
The District 2 girl strides purposefully to the pale green boys' tent. She kicks it several times in the side, finally hitting somebody. "Ow!" Alex cries. Stavren grins wickedly and kicks harder in the same spot. "OW!" Muffled voices begin to waft from the tent.
"What a crybaby!" That's Marius.
"But she kicked me!"
"And? Deal with the pain, District Ten. You're in the Hunger Games." Reetan, definitely. The three of them slowly drag themselves out of the tent, pulling on the Capitol-issued mud-colored jackets. We've only got one can of Spam left, and Stavren deliberately tosses it to Alex. He goes to the same place he sulked yesterday, but Reetan calls him back before he takes five steps. "We're discussing the hunt while we're eating, so don't try to get away, pretty boy." Then the eighteen-year-old calls us all together, and he pulls out two apples from our food pile for himself. I grab a roll and a packet of dried fruit- my pack will be stuffed later.
"So, here's our plan for today," Marius begins.
"You mean my plan," interjects Reetan.
"Whatever. So, anyway, we'll all be hunting today, as you know. No Career will be at the camp today. We'll be taking as many things as we can with us, because not a single kill on the first hunt is kind of irritating. Not to mention embarrassing." Well, I know I don't mind at all. None of us should even have to kill. "So, today we'll be out there until we hear some cannons!" Reetan snarls.
"So, where are we gonna be going?" Ebony asks, fidgeting. Marius gives her an irritated look.
"If you had just listened for another few seconds, you would have known," he snaps, "You all know, no guards. We'll be in two groups again, but it's figured out so it'll be matched up fine. Stavren and I will be going to the birch forest mountain." Stavren dips her head in acknowledgement. Reetan growls out the next group.
"Alex, Linley, Ebony, and I will head out to the oak mountain, and maybe scout out the magnolia forest as well if we don't see anyone by noon."
I'm going hunting. One of my worst nightmares is actually happening. Aunt Annie always said that killing stays with you forever, even if you weren't the murderer. I gulp, but Ebony grabs my shoulder. I've got your back.
"Everybody grab as much food as you can carry! Everything we can't carry, we're hiding. Except the tents," orders Marius. I scramble to grab a pack and fill it with food and water. Three bottles of water each- the supplies divide up perfectly. I grab handfuls of fruit, crackers, and containers of capitol food and shove them in the black bag; the other Careers bustling around are doing the same. I shove some of the food no one is taking deep into the hollow Cornucopia. When we reassemble, Reetan orders us to arm ourselves.
"And break any weapons we can't carry- we're not taking any chances with other tributes getting a chance against us!" Reetan grins evilly. I hurriedly grab one of the harpoons we have, leaving the other for Marius, a throwing knife, and a machete. The blades are heavy and I am the youngest of the Careers, unable to carry more; Stavren has two swords, a katana on her back, her slingshot, and several pouches of small stones at her waist and Reetan has at least five blades. As an afterthought, I sling a small round shield across my back. I can't leave totally undefended. When all of us are fully armed, there are only three knives, a pike, and a pickaxe left. We smash them against the cold metal Cornucopia. Nobody will benefit from our absence.
"Careers head out!" orders Marius.
M11: SHAKA AASTOR
I awake screaming. Ira jerks bolt upright from his fetal-position sleep a few feet away from me, still exhausted from moving me to the birch forest from the pines. "Shaka," he whispers hoarsely, "are you all right?" With the ebb of my outcries, the throbbing pain in my eye and arm returns full force and I curl up around my arm in agony. I can hear Ira say "Oh," and crawl over to me. His hands brush against my head where the bandage is covering my left eye, and the pain increases by a notch. I try to turn away from him, but he holds me still and looks over the bindings.
"I think it's finally scabbed over," he says. I grimace.
"You're saying my eye socket has scabbed over?" I say, gritting my teeth as he unties the cloth strips.
"Well, I don't know. I've never exactly had to deal with this before!" he begins to hyperventilate or something, and I can feel his fingers start to tremble.
"Calm down, Ira. I just needed something to say to try and take my mind off of the pain," I reassure my ally.
"How am I supposed to calm down when my ally just lost an eye!?"
"That eye is figuratively being rolled at you right now. Just take off the bandages and rewrap it really fast. We only have like, one more meal in that pack and my legs aren't hurt- I should be able to walk. This is the only thing we can do with wounds, but we can work on the food supply." With my good eye, I can see Ira's face as he unwinds the strips. The horror is almost comical, like when someone steps on a huge bug and its guts get all over their shoes. I'd laugh if it didn't hurt so much.
The final bandage finally comes off and it tears off a little bit of dried blood with it. The fresh wave of agony makes me nauseous; Ira looks like he wants to puke too as he tosses the bandage into the woods. "And now for the arm," he quavers. I pry my arm out from the paralyzed position I'm in- frozen with pain- and the bandage comes off cleanly. Ira blows out a huff of breath when it isn't infected, but scabbed over. "I don't think you'll need a new bandage here. The wound is pretty much superficial."
Suddenly, a drop of rain hits my face on the gash near my ear. "Wrap it up, Ira! Wrap it up!" I clench my teeth as the boy shoves the roll of cloth around my head again and again, bumping my skull on the ground when he lets go of the bandage. I can't see anything different; the only reason I know there's any sort of binding there is the feeling of pressure on the unharmed skin around the wound.
"Come on, Stavren! We need a kill today!" I register the voice as that of Marius, Career leader, and freeze. The pack is hunting early.
"I know, District Four. Let's beat Reetan's team out of their prize!" The rain intensifies and the Careers groan. "I hope there's somebody nearby- otherwise the oak mountain will give the first sightings. These birch trees are so dense, and you guys saw things on that mountain yesterday, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but still. I'm just surprised that elephant mutt hasn't gotten killed yet. I can't think of whose it was, either." Marius jumps off a boulder not twenty meters down the mountain. I glance at Ira, who is stabbing at the root of a birch tree in the muddy ground with his scythe.
"Ira," I hiss, "we need to get out of here!"
"I know," he replies, "this is the reason I'm doing this." He chops through the root and tosses it over, sending it skidding to a halt by my side. "Get moving!" The initial wave of dizziness as I stand is quickly replaced by animalistic terror. I use the root as a walking stick, but I'm still uncoordinated. Ira scrambles ahead of me with the pack, looking back every so often to make sure I haven't collapsed. The Careers look towards the trees we're running through, but I hear Marius's explanation.
"Probably just a small game animal. The rain is playing tricks on us. I would have seen a tribute there!" I gulp and see a small gully ahead of me. Ira has already jumped it, but he is waiting on the other side. My mind is still full of blind terror.
I use the root to jump, but my legs are wobbly from loss of blood and I fall, sliding in the leaf muck and fresh mud. "Ira!" The other boy slips into the small ravine and pulls me to my feet, rushing up the other side, away from Stavren and Marius, as fast as we can manage.
"Faster, Shaka!" I grit my teeth.
"I'm already going just as fast as I can go. I don't exactly have my full vision and it's raining now. They didn't even see us!" Ira is bristling with sheer terror, but he begins to calm down when he realizes the truth. Then we hear Stavren's voice again.
"Hey, look here, Marius. I found a bandage! Ugh- a used bandage, too. Someone was just here. Should we hunt them?"
"Definitely. They're injured and they're nearby. I bet that the noise was them running away. That would put them at a pretty small size, too, in order to run away unnoticed." I turn to Ira again.
"Run!" I urge, but he's already hauling me to my feet. We're off. The birch trees rustle behind us, the Careers shout and their footsteps in the underbrush are louder than the rain that drenches all of us. Ira hauls me along, not bothering to help me over the logs, just forcing me over. The Careers chase after us, shouting.
F5: MALLOW GREENE
I hear shouts beneath my hiding place. I fall out of the crevice and look down the mountain's steep slope. There's a little bit of commotion in the birches, but I don't see anyone. Wait... who?
"RUN!" shouts Shaka Aastor. I take his advice and take off, but the pains in my stomach and my parched tongue have made my knees weak. No supplies and no sponsors are beginning to take a toll on me. The boys seem to be in about as bad condition- Shaka has a bandage wrapped around his head and Ira looks haggard and hungry. They're supporting each other, and I barely wonder what they're running from as they dash past me. I just follow.
"There are three of them!" a Career shouts behind us. I stifle a shout at the unexpected call and try not to lose my balance on the rocky trail I'm taking.
"Stavren! Slingshot!" another one rasps; this time a boy speaks.
"Yeah, got it!" A rock zings over my head and hits off the rocks above me. I withdraw my hand, startled, from the boulder I was scrambling over, but I regain my balance before I can fall into their killer hands. I hear one of the boys slip and fall, the other cries out and I fly past them. Ira helps the injured Shaka back to his feet and they charge up the slope once again. My heart pounds like a hammer on an anvil and blood pulses through my body, fueled by adrenaline and fear.
The boys overtake me again as the girl from Two looses more stones from her weapon. Ira shouts when one of the projectiles hits his hands, a bruising blow. Finally, twenty yards separate me from Ira and Shaka. Ten yards separate me from the Careers.
"She's in range now, Marius!" The boy gives a low, dark chuckle.
"Let's get her." I've got no chance to run; I lift a stone from the thin soil.
"Ha! She thinks it'll be a fight!"
"Well, this will be interesting. Do you have a name, girlie? Because if you don't I'm fine with calling you 'the girl corpse from Five'. Dylan was an idiot, but he was a strong idiot. What are you?" Marius says in a sickly-sweet voice.
"I'm Mallow. I agree; Dylan was an idiot. I'm not."
"Let us begin."
Stavren pulls out a long knife from its sheath; Marius spins a harpoon in his hand. Maybe I can defeat one of them and run from the other- they've never seen my fighting side before, since I never revealed it in training.
Stavren and Marius share a glance and their eyes narrow. I shiver in fear, but there's no turning back. One of Stavren's rocks hits my knuckle and I wince, but I don't drop the rock I'm holding. She unsheathes another dagger and they advance towards me.
The first lunge is unexpected. I never got to train with the spears in the three days we were given, and I'm expecting Marius to jab at me with the point. However, he swings the tip of the harpoon and it cuts a gash in my arm. Blood flows immediately and I howl. There's no one to hear, though, Shaka and Ira are long gone. I hurl the rock with my good arm, scooping up more stones with the injured. The movement makes blood spray from it.
My rock missed the boy entirely, but he looks shocked. I toss another stone, and it tumbles past him. He ducks, bringing his free hand up to his head in case he ducked too late. He's not stupidly overconfident. Crud. I was hoping that the Careers would mostly all be like that.
Stavren charges into the little skirmish, holding one blade in front of her to attack and the other near her body to deflect any of my stones. As she runs within three yards of me, I step aside and she flies past me, both of us unharmed. When she goes to make another pass, I'm ready. I don't turn aside as she expected- when she veers to catch my nonexistent motion, I bash a rock on her hand. She screams and drops the blade, and Marius snickers. This time he jabs, catching the outer edge of the bloody gash on my arm and tearing away another chunk of flesh. Crimson pulses around the edges of my vision. I drop and roll, picking up Stavren's dropped blade as I jump up. I knock the tip of the spear away from my cheek and parry Stavren's blow towards my torso. The harpoon rips my jacket down the back and I catch on it for a few moments, flailing wildly. Marius swings me around from my path downhill and back into the fray. Stavren favors her right hand and I desperately try to stay on that side of her. Marius attacks from the side where he cut me, though, and scores a set of shallow slices across my right side and leg. He has a few cuts too, and Stavren definitely has a broken knuckle and some bad bruises. I might actually get out of this alive! I jump onto a large, flat boulder in order to get the higher ground. I block Stavren's machete and Marius swings low, sending me sprawling on the wet stones.
CRACK. I scream and my cry echoes on the mountain. My ankle has a neat hole in it on one side, where the boy from Four tripped me with his harpoon, but the inner side of my leg is a mangled mess, the bone sticking out with a jagged edge. The world tilts rather alarmingly, like when you stop spinning in a circle too fast. A raindrop hits my face and falls just like a tear would.
"Gotcha, Mallow," Marius says. He high-fives Stavren, who traces my jawline with her knife. I can feel her take away her dagger from my numbing fingers. Then the harpoon plunges down and darkness-
F12: DELILAH MERCUS
I scrape the last of the cold soup from the bottom of its container. Beside me, Scar does the same with his packet of saltine crackers and artificial cheese-stuff. Gabriel watches us both hungrily, having already finished his soup.
"That's it for food, guys. It's officially the Hunger Games," I say jokingly. Scar leans back against the cool boulder; Gabriel sits up straighter and smiles worriedly.
"What are we going to do now?" he asks.
"My brother Noah always said that food and water were the most important things in the Games- not the other tributes. We need food today," Scar says decidedly. Gabriel and I nod assent. We've already heard tons about Scar's late older brother, and he seemed like a veritable expert on survival.
"Well, the edible plants station guy said that you scavenge better on an empty stomach, so I'll head out for the food we need," Gabriel volunteers. I shrug. Whatever he wants- I just know I need to organize our supplies and divvy up the knives and weird spikes that were in the pack.
"Take the poison with you, so you can get away from anyone you meet up with in the woods," I say. He grabs one of the bottles- we marked the caps of the real water with mud- and walks off into the woods. I trust him with our food; Gabriel spent two hours at edible plants and bugs. I haven't seen any game animals, but we really haven't looked yet. We'll be fine on eating plants as long as we have water.
Gabriel dashes into the rain and through the trees surrounding our crevice. The oak forest rustles as the rain continues to fall. Scar and I huddle in the cave.
"We really need to move soon," he says, "this cave won't be safe for much longer, and our mutts could be found at any time."
"Well, we aren't moving today. One of us could slip and fall, like you did yesterday on that cliff. Besides, Gabriel just left! Are you trying to break the alliance?" I admonish my ally.
"No, Delilah, not now! After the rain lets up, maybe, or even tomorrow if it stops storming today. I wouldn't break this alliance. We trust each other more than just a survival alliance." I'm appeased by his explanation and I curl up against the rock wall. "Can you tell me about your sisters again?" A smile twitches at the corners of my mouth. I love talking about Tammy and Lucy.
"Did I tell you about the time a dog came into our house?" He shakes his head.
"Well, it was right after the Hunger Games that year. Tammy and Lucy were helping me clean the bedroom when we hear this crash downstairs. I ran down ahead of them holding this broom, and I see a huge brown dog in the room. I thought it might be rabid, but Tammy ran right past me and tried to hug it. It let her pat it for a while, but then Lucy tried to hug it too, and it ran right out the door!" Scar laughs appreciatively.
"Why don't you tell me about one of your track meets?"
"All right, here's a story- we were running a ra-" BOOM. A tribute cannon! Scar stops midsentence and crawls to the entrance of our cave. A hovercraft whomp-whomp-whomps across the cloudy sky.
"GABRIEL!" I scream. What happened to him?
"Up there!" voices other than our ally's echo in the storm.
"Delilah!" Scar hisses. I ignore his admonishment.
"Arm yourself- fast!" I grab two knives and stick one of the spikes between my teeth. Scar grabs the other knife and the other two spikes.
Four Careers burst out of the trees, weapons in their hands. They see Scar's blond head sticking out from our cave and I see the largest of them, Reetan Altis, grin wickedly.
"Get ready to fight and run, Delilah- we have to assume Gabe's gone now." I nod and clench my teeth.
I scramble out of the hole alongside my ally. "There are two of them!" Ebony shouts. I glare at the girl. She was going to ally with us before the Careers asked her to join them. She waggles her fingers at me and ruffles the girl from Four's hair protectively. Hate for Ebony rushes through me like a tidal wave.
I scream and charge. Linley Cresta clutches a harpoon tightly, but I don't even care, not even when I see the other weapons on her back and belt. I slash at her, and Ebony cries "Whoa!". I shriek and thrust my spike at the younger girl again, cutting into her left side. She won't get the smirking pleasure of taking my ally again.
Alex Tibolla and Reetan charge at Scar, and I can almost feel the panic coming from Scar's mind. He's told us many times that you should never take on more than one enemy at the same time, unaided, but now there are two of them coming at him.
"Delilah, stop it!" Ebony shouts, shoving me away from Linley with her crossbow.
"No! Not after you left us!" I yell. Linley clutches her arm now, her turquoise eyes pleading with me for life. I won't allow it. Ebony shoots one of her darts at me, but it flies over my head. I stab at Linley again, grazing her forehead and drawing blood again. She tentatively takes a swing at me with her harpoon, but I only sustain a cut on the back of my hand. My adrenaline doesn't even let me register the pain, but when I knock Linley down for the killing blow I hear a scream. "SCAR!" The boy is thrashing on the ground, Reetan and Alex slicing away at him happily. I leave Linley on the ground and leap to my ally's side. I shove at Alex, but the eighteen-year-old is too heavy for me to move. "Scar! Scar!" A pitiful mewling comes from the bloody slab pinned to the rocks.
"Delilah- run," he croaks. BOOM. I turn to flee, but the Career girls are advancing on me and the boys are right behind me. Ebony aims the tip of her arrow at my chest.
"You tried to break my heart, now I'll pierce yours," she croons. Intense pain. The hovercraft shines on me and the Careers run.
M7: AXIT SENID
Two more cannons fire. I sit in the magnolia tree alone and bow my head in memory of the three dead tributes.
There's not anything I can do, so I jump down from the tree. Aloe-mutt is out there somewhere, and I've been looking for her since the run from the Cornucopia, but I haven't found her. The tree nymph is maddening me.
My knees are weak and I have no food or water. I have gotten four hours of sleep, total, and nothing has revealed itself to me as food. Magnolia leaves are waxy and I don't think they're edible. The rain wet my tongue a bit, but it's slowing now and I have nothing to collect water. I pry a shard of bark from the tree and stalk down the mountain, trying to avoid any large rocks. My knees tremble again.
A rustle in the bushes- a tribute? I hold the sharp stick out in front of me; it offers little in the way of protection. The bushes part, but no one steps forth from the dense, dark leaves. The skinny rabbit hops to the tree to my right and I see a small hole in the roots. This could be my only chance at food. I lunge, and the thing squeals, a human noise. I jerk back and the animal disappears into its hole.
Was it one of the mutts? Somehow, I doubt it; the rabbit was perhaps one of the normal animals in the accursed arena and I was imagining the human squeal. I know my muttation, although I haven't found it. The mutt behind me was a tiny bat with fangs almost as long as its body. I saw an eagle a few plates over, but all the other tributes were smaller than their muttations. There was a wolf with bristling fur and powerful taloned paws; a rat with a squealing call, green spines on its back, and red eyes; some sort of metal-antlered elk; and I also remember a mantis, one with huge eyes and snapping forearms.
I crouch over the hole, awaiting the return of the rabbit. My arms eventually stiffen and my back cracks whenever I try to stand up. Hours later, a small, quivering pink nose pokes out of the hole, followed by a brown furry head. I stab as fast as I can with my stick, and the rabbit squeals again. This time it's a normal rabbit scream. The animal convulses a few times, then I'm left with a rabbit catch to figure out to skin and eat. Without fire. Without any sort of cooking supplies.
I break off another magnolia scrap and slice the rabbit open at its neck, trying to peel off the pelt. I almost throw up, insofar being unaccustomed to any sort of hunting. The meat shines in the dim afternoon light, the sky still cloudy from the rains earlier.
The steaming carcass is actually tempting me, and I don't know how. My stomach grumbles and I dig into the meat with my bare hands. There's no way for me to cook this, but I'll probably starve without anything in my belly. I cram strips of raw meat in my mouth, not caring about the slimy texture. The rabbit lays shredded at my feet.
The meat leaves a moist taste in my mouth and an uncomfortable feeling in my belly. I gag and hold a hand over my mouth as I try to hold down the meal. How stupid can I get? That rabbit could give me food poisoning and some weird diseases, and if you're weak in the Hunger Games, you don't come out alive. I have to hold this down.
The rabbit spews back up, barely beginning to be digested. I lay on my hands and knees, more dehydrated and weaker than before. I collapse, spread-eagled on the ground, and I hear my own rasping breath as I fade. How stupid can I get?
I wake up, the sky beginning to darken. My stomach twists and groans in protest as I stand and stretch my stiffening limbs. My legs are like the thin jelly we make from the sap of pines back in Seven, and I drag myself along the forest floor. I no longer have the will to survive.
"Please.. if anyone's there… finish me off," I rasp into the shadowy trees. I hear a rustle in the woods. "Please." I silently beg for the noise to be another tribute.
"Axit, that's your name, right?" a girl steps into my line of sight.
"Yeah. Do you have a… a weapon?" I don't even know who I'm talking to, but I want them to kill me before I thirst to death.
"No. I ran from the bloodbath like you. I'm starving, too."
"Will you kill me?"
"I'm not the only one, then."
"What?"
"I'm not the only one who's lost the will to live. No food, no water, no sponsors, no sleep- no will to survive anymore. I hurt too much to go on." Listening to the girl talk so suicidally makes me angry. Do I really feel this way, sick and depressed enough to desire death?
"Listen, we're not gonna die. We'll find some way to survive, somehow. Allies?"
"Sure." As I speak- rather eloquently for someone so shy- a silver, glinting parcel descends from the sky. The girl reaches for it, and I prop myself up on my elbows to see what it is. If it's a weapon, we'll be using it soon. If it's a tinder kit, we can roast the rest of the rabbit. If…
"Food!" the girl calls joyfully. Immediately, we want to live again, we want to go home. My newfound ally shakes her hair in the waning light, and I catch a glimpse of red. Rose Trinity, from Eight.
"I bet our mentors had to pool all our sponsors for this one gift," I joke. She tosses the parachute to me, then plops down alongside me. She reaches for two of the four apples and one of the three chunks of bread. She pulls them into the hood of her leather jacket.
And Rose dashes into the trees, leaving me on my own once again.
IN DISTRICT EIGHT: CAL MATTHEWS
There are three faces in the sky, we learn from Aurelia Flickerman before the recaps even start. They show them backward here- the Capitol likes to know who died before they know how they died. First is the girl from Five, a girl who look sort of like my best friend Burr. I wonder if she ever wanted to look more feminine- before the Games, that is. She looked like she'd be nice. I hope she died without too much pain.
My brother. My brother is in the sky. I try to twist the face into another's, but I can't mistake my brother for anyone else. Cab whimpers beside me, sitting on the floor of our family room. Mother whisks Strawberry and Ace away to bed, and Father places a hand on Emma's shoulder as she begins to wail. I feel a wave of rage and pain welling in my stomach, and I want the person who killed my brother to die a horrible, painful death. The thoughts startle me- I never really want people to get hurt. Cab's the fighter, I'm the talker. But my brother's gone- that makes two gone. I wonder if Noah and Scar can see each other again now. Like Scar said in the visiting room, my twin and I are the oldest children of the house now. We won't let Emma, Ace, or little Strawberry take tesserae, even if it means we work so we never get any sleep and have to take so many tesserae our names half-fill the crystalline reaping orb.
The girl from Twelve is the last face, Delilah Mercus. My brother's rational, fiercely caring ally. She seemed kind enough, and I had hoped, although pointless, that she could return to her home also. Scar's other ally, Gabriel, isn't shown in the sky, but he is probably somewhere dying if the rest of his alliance is dead. I hope he's okay, for Scar's sake.
For Scar's sake, Cab and I have to keep our little siblings safe now.
Knock, knock. A loud rapping comes at the door. I rush to open it and find Scar's track coach standing there. "I came to give my condolences."
These are the current standings and alliances (for your benefit. If I'm confused reading this, I'm sure others are too):
Fala Harris & Vulkin Harris
Stavren Muxas, Reetan Altis, Linley Cresta, Marius Dylan, Alex Tibolla, & Ebony Echo
Ira Spark and Shaka Aastor
Mikhail Frey
Gabriel Grow
Axit Senid
Rose Trinity
17th: D5F Mallow Greene
16th: D8M Scar Matthews
15th: D12F Delilah Mercus