They're all ready for it to end.
.oOo.
Triton Clifford, 17
District Four Male
3 Kills
It's time to buckle down and get things done today.
Well, that's what he had said on the seventh day. But now it's the tenth, and they're no closer to finding any tributes.
Dimitri has been itching to find someone, Triton can tell. There's something in his eyes, the way he walks, the way he gets just a bit more impatient whenever the other two pause in their work that tells Triton that the boy wants to get this over with soon.
But they're stuck here, for now, combing through the arena in larger and larger shifts. They haven't had a chance to check the far side of the mountain well, and they don't know if they'll be able to. There's only three of them, after all, and splitting up would only make them weaker.
Yet, splitting up could prove to be the fastest way to find the rest.
"So who wants to go on the far side?" Thetis asks, chewing a piece of dried fruit that she's fished out from some container. She's in remarkably high spirits still, although she looks more tired every day. Triton's worried about her - he doesn't know if she'll be able to properly fight if she keeps pushing herself like this.
He should trust them more, yet he gets more nervous with every day that passes.
"I'll go - Dimitri too, you can take this side. We'll spend as much time as we can to look for the tributes. If we don't find anyone in four days, or if we hear a cannon, we all head back to the chalet and settle back down. Sounds good?" Triton looks around the group, and they nod.
It's strange how quickly he's settled into a leadership position now that Lumara is gone. Although it still hurts to know that she's not here, that he's lost one more piece of District Four, he's channelled that energy in searching and working to finish these games.
They're all ready for it to end.
"And what if we hear more than one cannon?" Dimitri asks, looking at the others coolly.
"Then we run." Thetis finishes the conversation, grabbing the food and splitting it into thirds. "We should be close to the end once we run out - ration, I guess, but the better thing to do is use it as fuel to search. The quicker they're gone, the quicker we win."
"Agreed." Dimitri takes the smaller portion of food, a gracious gesture on his behalf. He pushes his sword back into its makeshift holster and turns, waving a hand goodbye to the others. "Good… good luck, you two. Stay safe, out there."
"He's really changed," Triton whispers to Thetis when Dimitri walks out of the door and towards the ski lift. "You think that he would have done the same thing if he still had the same mentality in training?"
"Don't underestimate a Two," Thetis replies. "He's loyal - he must have had some sort of epiphany, and I trust him. He's not the threat."
"For now."
And with that, they depart.
Triton takes the ski lift up the hill, settling into his seat and watching Thetis disappear into the forest. She moves quickly, practically dancing on her skis as she fades into the forest and out of his vision. Ahead of him, he can see the figure of Dimitri leap off of the ski lift and head down a path that takes him to the left side of the mountain. That leaves the right for him, and Triton slides off of the seat when he reaches the top of the mountain. He looks down the mountain path, nods once, and pushes off.
It's time to hunt.
.oOo.
It's perfect.
For now, at least.
.oOo.
Ellington Lockwood, 18
District Nine Female
1 Kill
She needs to find a new place to hide.
The fact that it's the thirteenth night has slipped from Elli's mind as she trudges through the snow, looking for a suitable tree to hole herself up in. Her mind needs some sort of variety if she's going to keep surviving out here, and she doesn't have enough energy to climb higher than other tributes.
She ran out of food two days ago.
She finds the perfect tree a few minutes later - thick and bushy needles that will hide her thin frame from view, intertwined with branches from other trees to keep itself in position, and with low-hanging branches that she can haul herself up on. It's perfect.
For now, at least.
About ten feet above the ground, Elli's strength gives up and she settles down on the branch. It's big enough to hold her frame, and she pushes her feet onto another branch so that they won't have to be pulled up for hours on end. She doesn't want to cramp them too badly.
She leans her head on the tree's trunk and falls asleep, forgetting to tie herself in the tree. When she wakes, it's dark, and she flails around in panic as she nearly falls out of the tree. It's only another branch that keeps her up as she shoots a hand out to balance herself properly. When she's calmed down, she looks out into the forest - there's nothing but darkness and the silhouettes of other trees in the forest.
She's still alone.
She's still here.
The rest of the night seems to fly by, all too quickly, and Elli yawns when she wakes up. She feels like a mess - sleeping on a tree doesn't help her back or muscles from getting sorer than she knew were possible, and the only upside was that she wasn't wet. She's surprised she hasn't been wet or cold enough to catch hypothermia yet - perhaps it's the parka, perhaps it's the fact that she's stayed out of the snow whenever she had a proper chance to.
Oh well, the only thing that matters is that she isn't dying from hypothermia. The voices - she's too tired to pay proper attention to them anymore - have subsided for once, and the only thing that she has to struggle with are the illusions.
The sky decides to be a brilliant shade of red today, the colour of Birchwood's blood, and Elli looks down into the snow. At least it stays white - her mind will give her the comfort of keeping the snow various shades of white. Yes, perhaps she'll stay sane - well, as sane as she was when she started the Games - if she just ignores the illusions.
"Day Fourteen!" she mumbles to herself, pushing through a mound of snow to get back to her tree. Today, she won't even bother trying to find a new place to hide. If anything, it'll expose her more if she keeps moving.
She wants to sleep.
There are two paths of footprints in front of her as she walks back to the tree, one her own and one the heavy tread of an unfamiliar boot, but she ignores them. It's probably just another illusion, and she's not going to try to fight it. She'll get back to her tree, sleep, and then deal with the footprints if they're still there. If they were ever truly there to begin with, for that matter.
When she gets to the tree, though, her senses start screaming at her to run. She looks around, confused, but she sees nothing.
She sees the boy when she looks up.
At least, Elli reflects as the boy gives an apologetic smile and pushes his sword into her chest - cutting through whatever major arteries he believes will help her bleed out faster - she can finally close her eyes and rest.
.oOo.
She can't remember anymore.
.oOo.
Bayleigh Mountainson, 12
District Ten Female
1 Kill
She wants to rest.
Bayleigh's mind, however, refuses to rest as she lies under the pine tree and pretends that she's dead. What would it be like, she wonders, to die?
She doesn't know what's supposed to happen now that they're two weeks into the Hunger Games and there's only six of them left - that's what she thinks the number is now, if her counting of the large blasts that followed every death is correct - but something should happen soon. There's only a fourth of the original twenty-four left - the top twenty-five percent, only a quarter of the original tributes. There's a witticism in that thought, somewhere, but she doesn't have the knowledge or patience to find it.
She doesn't have the strength for anything now.
How, she thinks as she gazes at the brilliant green of the forest around her, will she be found by the other tributes? She's been living off of snow that she melts off of her tongue for the past few days, and her energy is completely spent. Her stomach aches for something to eat, and she can barely move. That's the reason she's under this tree - she had dragged herself here yesterday to rest until she's found.
"I'm sorry… Mom… Dad… it wasn't your fault," she manages to whisper into the morning light. "It… it was mine too… I'm sorry."
Then she closes her eyes, and rests. It's so cold here, lying under this pine tree on the snow. Yet she can't get up - she's stuck in place until she dies or someone finds her. What will it be like to be found by another tribute? Will they draw out her death? Will it hurt?
Maybe she'll get so cold that when they finally find her, she'll be too numb to feel whatever they do to her.
The thought comforts Bayleigh as she falls into a deep, deep sleep.
She wakes up to the sound of a cannon, rubbing her eyes blearily. Her stomach still aches, but her mind is racing furiously. Who's dead? What happened? How many does that make now? One… two… three… four… five… six left now? No, is it seven? She can't remember anymore. She can't remember anything, nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing…
She falls asleep again, exhausted.
Is it a natural instinct for the body to preserve energy by sleeping? Bayleigh doesn't know, but that's what she wonders when she wakes up again. She's still cold, but there's a bit of body heat that's been preserved in the folds of her parka to keep her warm.
That's a small relief for now. At least, while she can still think, she can stay warm.
It starts to turn cold again, the wind blowing through the trees and chilling Bayleigh to the bone. She curls up into a small ball, and tries to cry in frustration. The tears freeze before they hit the ground, breaking off of her face and falling into the snow. She tries to bury herself in her parka, but it's too cold now - the wind has stolen all of her warmth.
Her teeth are chattering madly as she pushes herself into a sitting position, trying to look around. It's so cold, yet it's not… she's starting to get warm again. She can feel the wind on her face, still, but perhaps it's warming up again. Maybe the parka's warmer than she thought - it's too hot, in fact. She needs to take it off before she swelters in it. She's going to die from this heat alone.
Before she gets the chance to take her boots off along with the parka that she pushes to the side, she hears a voice in the snow.
"Hello?"
Bayleigh looks up. Who is it? There's no one left here, right? She's the… the only… the only one in this forest.
Well, not any longer.
She closes her eyes and ignores the voice of the girl, who comes closer. "Oh, it's the girl from Five - are you okay? Um, you're going to feel pain for a bit but it'll go away soon - I'm sorry, darling. Well… if you go anywhere after the pain, put in a good name for Thetis Clifford, okay? I'm sorry."
Bayleigh shuts her eyes as hard as she can, hoping that she won't feel the pain. She does, of course, and it spreads all over her body like fire as the pressure comes again. She feels wet and sticky now, so wet and sticky and red and bloody and red and…
And the pain goes away.
.oOo.
It'll be the perfect chance for her to plot.
.oOo.
Audra Zimanski, 16
District Five Female
1 Kill
The cannon sends its warning throughout the arena once more, and Audra looks up in surprise.
So, she's made it to the final four.
Interesting.
But the cannon's in the middle of the day, too far from evening to let her know who actually died, so she goes back to pouring through the contents of the cornucopia. After leaving her shelter on the twelfth day - she had burnt it down and doused it with snow, just to make sure no one would track her or use it for their own purposes - she had gone back to the chalet with a hunch that no one would be there.
She had been proven right when she walked in - without the girl from Four, Lumara, the careers had decided to leave the cornucopia and start hunting on their own. She decided to use it instead, guessing that no one would think of coming in until they had found someone in the arena, and today her instincts proved her to be correct once more.
Fourteen days and twenty tributes after entering the arena, Audra finally has her chance to win the Hunger Games.
Putting everything back into its place, she takes her axe and retreats back up the stairs to the rooms that the careers had overlooked. Judging by the cleanliness of the rooms in the chalet, the careers have only camped in the cornucopia and used their spare time to hunt. When they come back to regroup, they won't think of looking up here.
It'll be the perfect chance for her to plot.
Choosing a spot next to a window that overlooks the bottom floor of the chalet, Audra lies down and waits for the careers to return. It takes an hour or so, but the first of them - the boy from Four - walks in with his trident and a skittish, nervous look. Audra tenses, worried that he'll see her, but he walks into the cornucopia without a second glance. He has no idea that she's here.
A quarter of an hour later, the girl from Two walks in. She has blood splattered all over her parka, and she looks upset. Yet there's a steely gaze in her eyes that suggests that she's still ready to fight - she must have dealt with one of the tributes. Who would it have been, the girl from Nine or Ten? Perhaps it was both - but Audra doubts that. The girl would look prouder if she had killed two today.
The boy from Two is the last to join them, his shoulders straight as a rod. But she can see how they sag, just the tiniest bit, in relief when he sees that his allies are in the cornucopia. He must have been worried he was the only one of them left.
"Dimitri! So you killed the… Nine?" The girl murmurs, and Audra leans closer to the window to catch snippets of their conversation. "Only the… we'll get her soon."
"What's the plan?" The three discuss how they'll find Audra for a few minutes, unaware that she's right above their heads. In the end, however, they decide to spend the night in the cornucopia before heading back out to search. Audra settles back into the blankets that she had scavenged from a room up in the upper floor, confident in her plan.
They'll never find her here. This is the place they feel safest in. They won't suspect to look for her here - no, a reasonable tribute would be somewhere in the arena. While they're gone tomorrow to look for Audra, she'll sneak down and poison a meal. Once one was dead, the others would suspect foul play from among themselves - if all went well, they'd tear each other to bits.
And if not?
She has other ideas.
yEP
6th: Ellington Lockwood, District Nine Female; Killed by Dimitri Muller. Created by LordShiro.
Elli was a really fun girl to write - she had quite the complex backstory that I hope I managed to portray well, and she worked hard at everything that she did. She didn't let anything stop her, even when it was day fourteen and she was starving to death. She might have made it further, but hallucinations mixed with fatigue never works out well for people. It was time for her to go, and she never got a good chance to run from Dimitri. Thank you, Shiro, for a girl that I very much enjoyed writing! I hope I didn't misspell her name as Elle TOO often LOL
5th: Bayleigh Mountainson, District Ten Female; Killed by Thetis Clifford. Created by goldie031.
Bayleigh was the one that we are probably all surprised by seeing make it this far - she was too small, too bratty, too off-beat to really get a good chance to make it to the final five. Yet surviving the bloodbath and pushing on through sheer grit allowed her to get all the way to the fourteenth day - and she might have made it further if Thetis hadn't found her. Thetis had the good graces to be apologetic about this death, because Bayleigh was the youngest here. She deserved this the least. Thank you, goldie, for a really fun girl who I kept enjoying more and more as I wrote her.
Thank you all for your lovely reviews, btw! I love seeing all of your thoughts on what will happen, and it's so nice to hear what you think. They mean a lot to me.
NOW, GET READY FOR A DOUBLE UPDATE - REMEMBER TO READ THE NEXT CHAPTER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Enjoy! Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ