If it continues like that, they won't have any time to search in the day left at all.
.oOo.
Duchess Coruscate, 16
District One Male
2 Kills
It's strange to think that someone other than them is finding it just as easy to murder.
The careers have all gathered near the window of the mansion to wait for the familiar strains of the anthem, hoping to see who's the next to die. Now there are only seven tributes left out there for them to kill - seven to split between themselves unless they decide to implode before they find them all.
And one - who knows, maybe more - is willing to kill.
Duchess giggles when the anthem begins, taking a bite of a deliciously plump sticky bun from the cornucopia as he waits for the face to be displayed in the sky. "Who'll it be? I'm going to guess that we've gotten rid of the girl from Eleven - I don't see how she's still here."
"Isn't she part of that alliance?" Aeson asks, frowning slightly as he does so. For a moment, his chiselled features contort into a confused expression that can't be described as anything other than dopey, and Duchess hides a snicker. "They wouldn't break apart now, would they?"
"Who knows? Alliances outside of ours aren't meant to stay together for long, I'm sure. I don't see anyone doing it as well as the careers - do you see them?" Duchess smirks at the thought, then shrugs it off. It doesn't matter right now - right now, they're focused on the mountain. They know that's not where the large alliance is, but they don't have the time to search there - ever since the second day, the mist disappears for less and less time.
If it continues like that, they won't have any time to search in the day left at all. At least, not if they want to actually see where they're going.
He'd prefer not to be ambushed by the girl from Five or boy from Six because he's stumbling around in the mist for the better part of the day.
"Oh, there we go!" Tourmaline points up at the sky, where an image of the girl from Three flickers brightly before vanishing from sight. "Girl from Three… was she alone?"
"No, she was with the boy from Three. I don't know what happened to her - maybe someone found her." Duchess shrugs again, knowing that it doesn't matter. What does matter is that they know who's left - the boy from Three, the girl from Five, the boy from Six, and the girls from Seven, Eight, Nine, and Eleven.
Only a few left to go.
"I wonder what happened to her… I'm sure the boy from Three didn't do anything, he's a scrawny little thing. But scrawny things can still kill with weapons… I guess we'll never know." Aeson yawns, turning to head back to the bedrooms. "Any other ideas?"
"I'm betting she found a mutt or something - why wouldn't there be one out there?" Tourmaline asks the others, not expecting a proper answer. The arena has been confusing so far, but at least it's comfortable - they don't have to go and push it to the limit every moment, every day.
Duchess likes it a bit better this way.
"Night," he yawns to the others, then walks through the narrow hallway to the bedrooms. He's looking forward to a night of sleep - today's stretched on for too long.
But when he gets to his own bedroom, he pauses, closes the door, then locks all of the doors and windows. Only when all of the locks are turned, all of the mesh screens are firmly in place, and all of the latches are turned, he feels like he's safe in here.
Just in case.
.oOo.
She'll never know until it works - or not, she supposes.
.oOo.
Colleen Tosse, 18
District Five Female
0 Kills
She needs to get this lake working for her, or she's not going to be able to stay away from the mansion. She needs this food. She needs energy. She wants that extra burst of adrenaline just in case someone tries to spring something on her, that last reserve of energy, and she's eaten all of her food supplies - and by the fifth day, at that. If only she had a chance to get to where the careers were - she'd rob them blind, taking whatever she could carry and running from them in the night. But she can't do that. It's too risky.
Instead, she's turned to fishing.
She gets up from the stump to check her lines again, tugging on them to see if anything's attached. They're annoyingly light, as they have been for the past few days - nothing's decided to take a bite out of the soggy crackers that she attached to the rope and hook that she cast out into the lake.
Maybe if she uses something more appealing, though…
Colleen shakes her head in amusement when she realizes how foolish she's been, dropping to her knees so she can search through the ground for worms as bait. How could she have forgotten - all fishermen used worms as bait in the movies that played during the afternoon when she was a little kid with nothing to do. She might have known that if she lived in somewhere more rural, like Four, but she grew up in one of the urban capitals of Panem. It's a wonder that she's somehow managed to make a fishing line in the first place.
Then again, she might be totally doing it wrong. She'll never know until it works - or not, she supposes.
Her fingers get sore from scratching through the wet dirt and past rocks, pebbles, and the like, but she's finally rewarded with the sight of a fat, juicy worm. For a second, Colleen's tempted to down the worm right there and then, but controls herself when she looks back at the lines.
She'd rather have fish than this wriggling thing.
She doesn't haul in the lines until she finds three more worms, corralling the first three in a circle of rocks until she finds a fourth to spear onto the hook of the fishing lines. When she's ready, she starts pulling in the lines - the second is especially tough, and she almost loses her hook on some stubborn weeds in the lake - until she muscles it up to the sandy shore of the tiny beach. Putting the hooks on the logs that the ropes serving as fishing lines have been tied to, she pushes two worms on both hook, then throws them back into the water as far as she can. No wonder that she hadn't caught anything with the crackers - it seems that they disintegrated in the water of the lake.
Ripples that spread through the lake disappear after a while, and Colleen settles back down to watch and wait. It takes a while, but she springs to life when she sees one of the lines trembling in the water. Barely daring to breathe, she gently coaxes it back to shore - the last she needs it to lose the fish because she pulled the line too roughly - and is rewarded with a fat, juicy fish that flops around on the sand until she puts it out of its misery with a sharp rock.
She can do this. She can do this. She can survive out here for as long as she needs to.
As long as the mist lets her stay.
.oOo.
She's all alone now.
.oOo.
Desdemona Steen, 15
District Eight Female
0 Kills
They're finally out of the trees, and she can't be happier about it.
She looks around the circle of allies that has formed in the messy, half-built shelter that they're trying to assemble - Jackson, Emma, and Aloie. All of them look as tired as she feels, and she coughs again just thinking about having to start lifting the logs that Jackson and Emma have been working to drag to the shelter to make the shelter once more.
Mona thinks that she's coming down with a fever.
It started a few days ago, with small coughs punctuating every day as she walked with the alliance and sat in the tree. It must be the mist, the wet atmosphere of the arena just burrowing its way into her lungs and only making her sicker and sicker. She hopes that the fever doesn't get too bad - she can feel herself getting weaker by the hour, she has a throbbing headache forming, and she knows that she wouldn't be popular enough to get a sponsor gift from the Capitolites.
She's all alone now.
Emma looks over at her as Mona gets up, then sinks back to the ground. "You okay, Mona?" she asks, looking concerned. Mona flushes - she doesn't want to worry everyone else, although her headache has only been getting worse.
"I'm doing really badly - oh, I just feel really sick. Maybe I caught something in the Capitol, or the arena did something to me. Oh, why does this have to happen now?" she moans, a stubborn tear worming its way down her cheek to splash onto the ground. It's like the world is mocking her, she reflects bitterly as she looks around at the most. It just won't dry up. She's stuck here until the mist goes away tomorrow morning.
"Oh, you should rest more often, then," Aloie says. She leans over to Mona and checks her temperature with a raised palm. "Yeah, you're not doing well. Surprised I didn't notice - I guess you're just naturally really pale. Let me go get some things from the packs - I can help bring down that temperature. Cheer up, if all goes well you'll feel much better in a few moments," she reassures Mona. "Give me a few moments, alright?"
Mona nods weakly, closing her eyes and waiting for Aloie to return. "Are you finished yet?" she ventures after a minute or so, looking in the direction that Aloie has disappeared in. She doesn't respond, and Jackson and Emma merely give her a pitying glance before turning back to talk about some more pressing issue. They don't care enough to help.
After an eternity of waiting, Aloie emerges from the mist with a handful of foreign leaves and a pack strung around her small, stolid shoulders. "Here's a few things I found growing near our shelter!" she says cheerfully, popping a few leaves between her teeth and chewing them while continuing to speak. "Let me just get these ready for you."
Mona's lip curls in disgust, but she makes no protest as Aloie pops the gooey mess out of her mouth and mixes it with some water that she plops over the small fire they have going. "What will it do?"
"Oh, it's a tea of sorts - it'll help heal you up. Dandelion leaves and all that, but I like it better when it's crushed. Makes it a bit easier to go down," Aloie replies absently, handing Mona a bottle of water. "Now, you relax."
Mona can't argue with that.
So she doesn't, and sinks into sleep as the afternoon continues.
.oOo.
It's good to have them here.
.oOo.
Emma von Hapsburg, 17
District Nine Female
2 Kills
The forest is quiet today - unearthly quiet. Where have the birds that usually chirped in the trees gone? Where have the other animals gone? If only the mist made a sound - at least it'd be comforting. She'd like a bit more noise in here.
Noise drowns out the anxieties and worries than run nonstop in her mind.
"Where do we want to put the next log?" Jackson asks, yawning widely as he does so. "We should put it on top of the first three, unless you want to lean it against one of the trees - I don't know. I just hope that there's as many fallen logs in this forest as we need to make the shelter properly."
"I guess we work on stacking to keep on working with the log shelter idea," Emma replies with a confused frown. "I don't know what to think either - I feel like we've hit a wall or something. I wish we could work with something else, but maybe we just need to stick it out with the current plan."
"No use complicating it, right?" Jackson laughs, nodding along with Emma. "Alright, I'll keep looking. If you go, remember your knife - use the arrows and all that. I don't want one of us getting lost in here. We have to keep each other together for now, right?"
"Right," Emma murmurs. She turns to grab the knife that she's stuck into the tree that they've hung the packs off of, wrenching it out of the trunk and into her hand. They've practiced it too many times to get it wrong - every time they leave the clearing that they've made their camp after they determined that sitting in a tree wasn't going to work for them, especially since no one's shown up in this part of the woods, they take a knife and carve an arrow pointing back to camp with every few trees that they pass. So far, it's worked for her - she's almost lost her sense of directions a few times, but the arrows haven't lied to her yet. It's good to have them here.
She goes south of the camp this time, looking critically around the forest for a new log to use as part of their set-up. They've tried to keep them at an even length, but they'll have to cut through some of the logs sooner or later to make them the same size as the smaller logs - it's hard to stack them together and bind them with the thick rope when they're different lengths.
Oh well, they'll cross that bridge when they come to it.
She continues to walk through the woods, looking around for more logs. Most of the fallen trees - unfortunately, there aren't as many as she'd like to see - are either too long or too small to put to use, and then have no axe to chop down trees for use in their cabin shelter. But she keeps walking forward, faithfully stopping to carve arrows in the trees every ten paces. She's not going to get lost in here. They've tried going further than their small boundary in the clearing, but it's hard to - if one of them goes too far, they get a strange headache and need to head back as soon as they can. It happened to Jackson yesterday - she's not going to let it happen to her.
But then, to her surprise, she drops her knife to the ground and pauses as she glances around the forest.
It must be the scream, so shrill, so fearful, that's gotten her on edge. It seeps into her bones, and she can't help but shiver.
She doesn't want to find out where it's coming from.
.oOo.
He'll stay out of the way.
.oOo.
Jackson Kennedy, 18
District Six Male
1 Kill
He pauses his search for more logs for the shelter when he hears the scream.
"Emma?" he dares to call out into the oblivion, hoping that whoever's screamed - if it isn't one of his allies - won't hear him unless they're friendly. "Are you there, Emma? It's Jackson - I'm still here. Who screamed? Hello?"
No one replies.
A dark, dreadful feeling starts to gnaw away at his conscience, and he hurriedly turns back to head to the clearing. It's hard to move faster than a quick walk without getting lost in this forest, and he has to slow down every few paces to check the bark of the trees and make sure that he's heading in the right direction. Maybe it's the fact that Six doesn't have forests, but it seems so hard to keep track of which way is which in this mist.
The arrows don't lie, though. He's glad he's thought of them. They'll keep him safe.
They'll lead him back.
He gets back to the clearing much more slowly than he would have preferred to, but he gets there eventually. And when he does, he's greeted with the terrified expressions of Aloie and Mona when they see him approach them.
Behind them, he sees that they're being kept at guard by the axe-point of the girl from Seven.
"Hey, stay away," the girl calls when he takes a step closer. "I know how to use this, you know." Jackson remembers her oddly high training score, and steps back. He doesn't want to get the girls killed. Not here. Not now. "Thank you, thank you, I just want a few things and I'll be on my way. I'm not trying to hurt you, honest. I just need more supplies. I'm sorry."
"I believe you," he tells the girl, glancing nervously down at her swollen stomach. How many months along is she in her pregnancy, eight months? He doesn't want to touch her - no, he doesn't want to know what the Capitol would do if he kills this pregnant woman. It's too risky right now. He has to let her go.
After all, he doesn't know what she can do with the axe that she so easily holds.
"I want a pack - some water, too," says the girl. She points her axe at the tree with the packs, and Aloie looks over at it as well. "Could you pack me some things? I'd do it myself, but -" she gestures helplessly at Jackson, and he nods. He'll stay out of the way.
Aloie rushes over to the tree, rummaging through the packs until she's collected an impressive assortment of items fort he girl. "Here you are - some medicine supplies and a few handy packs of food - I didn't give you a knife, but I'm sure you can find something else to suffice," she tells the girl.
"Thank you!" the girl seems satisfied with the pack, taking it in her free hand and stepping away from a shivering Mona. "I'll be on my way now - good luck, by the way."
Then she turns around - and is face to face with Emma. Jackson sees that Emma doesn't look happy, and he struggles not to tremble.
He doesn't want to know what happens next.
.oOo.
The girl pauses, processing Lee's argument until her eyes widen in understanding. "Oh."
.oOo.
Magnolia Rosa-Tran
District Seven Female
0 Kills
She halts in her tracks when she sees the girl from Nine appear out of nowhere, raising her knife in the air as she advances towards her. "Why do you have our pack?" the girl asks, brandishing her knife menacingly.
"I made a deal with your allies," Lee replies as coolly as she can in these circumstances. It takes all of her willpower not to run - she has to keep calm. She can't lose everything she's gained just because she's frightened of this girl from Nine. "Now, let me go, and I'll be out of your way. Simple enough, right?"
"Why shouldn't I kill you, right here and now?" the girl asks. Her lip curls into a sneer, and she steps closer. "I bet I can use this faster than you can that axe - it must be hard to throw it when you only have one hand to use. Maybe you should drop the pack and go. It'd be easier for you to avoid my knife."
"And what, you're going to kill me?" Lee scoffs, gesturing to her baby bump. It's a desperate, desperate gamble, but it could be just enough to frighten the girl into letting her go. It's worth a shot. "What will the Capitol think of you slaying an expectant mother in her tracks? You don't know what could happen. No one does, I suppose - not even myself. But you have about half a chance of it working - either you live, or you don't."
The girl pauses, processing Lee's argument until her eyes widen in understanding. "Oh."
"Well, I'll be on my way. Thank you for your time, good luck, and have a lovely day - or not. I don't mind either way," Lee continues. She keeps talking for the sake of distracting the girl, all the while keeping an eye on the girl's hand. Every second, her hand unclenches even more. "I'm sure you won't miss these supplies, considering that there's only four of you - and stay out of the way of the careers. They came close to me yesterday, but I was lucky - the mist is kind to us outliers. That's why I moved, though - so you guys stay safe to. Especially with this to deal with."
She throws a savage strike towards the girl from Nine's arm, her axe ripping into the flesh and leaving a long, jagged cut. As the girl bends over her bleeding arm, howling in pain, Lee runs - well, what's as close to running as she can manage at this point in her pregnancy. Only when she's sure that she's out of reach of the alliance she stops, panting madly while trying to get a bearing on her surroundings.
Once she's figured out where she is, she heads in a perpendicular direction from where she came from. She's not letting them catch up to her to get revenge for a flesh wound, of all things. A flesh wound!
She was kind enough to them, Lee reflects when she pauses to rest near a grove of trees - rather close to the creek that she crossed this morning. She could have killed one of the young ones, and they still wouldn't have touched her out of fright. She holds all of the cards when it comes to her pregnancy, it just depends on how bold she's willing to get with the other tributes.
With these ones, she's willing to play whatever game she can with them. But she's not going to go so far as to kill them - no, she doesn't want to risk them retaliating. She doesn't know what the Capitol thinks of her dying, and it wouldn't do for her to go too far and end up getting killed for it.
Yes, she's playing the game as best she can for now. And later in the Games, when she's hungry and tired and needs more food?
Maybe the next time she comes across an outlier, she'll be a bit more aggressive.
Another day, another chapter!
What do you all think of this one? We're starting to see some more tensions form between the outliers, some interesting hints at what could be, and I promise that soon everything is going far, far downhill. Get ready - you'll need to be if you want to make it through the next few chapters :P
Hopefully, I'll get another chapter out for y'all tomorrow, but we'll see. For now, enjoy, read, have a good time, share your thoughts if you want, etc etc! Have a lovely day :D
Enjoy. Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ