Oaken Mushroom- District Seven male (17)
Clair and I clambered up the elevator cords to the highest floor and started working down from there. It crossed my mind that Alysanne might have done the same thing, in which case we'd both have to search nearly the entire building and only cross paths once one of us reached the basement and doubled back. I wasn't in any rush to meet her anyway.
Some of the offices we looked through were really nice. There was usually at least one on each floor- probably some sort of department manager or something. One of them had a whole coffee-making station with fancy machines and glasses and syrups and stuff.
"Wow, this guy really liked coffee," Clair commented. She started looking through the syrups and cream packets that looked more like milkshake ingredients than coffee.
That wasn't what got my attention. I was focused on a simple coffee pot. A round glass coffee pot sat simply under a coffee spigot. And I wasn't excited like Clair was. I felt only a deep sadness.
"I have a horrible idea," I said softly. Clair looked over just as I picked up the pot and smashed it against the counter. I looked at the braided bolo tucked into my pants and then at the shards of glass.
Clair Mushroom- District Seven female (17)
I wanted to throw up. There was no way I could describe the sheer constant terror of sweeping a building looking for someone that wanted to kill me. Oaken and I went from door to door and each time we opened one I tensed. We opened each door and had no idea which time a killer might spring out. Every moment for hours I had to be ready to fight for my life. It was like the world's worst case of anxiety except that what I was anxious about was real.
After a few floors we started using the stairs. We were looking for Alysanne anyway so if we met her in the stairwell then so be it. Each floor blurred into the next. They all looked almost exactly the same. The only difference was a few open doors here or there where some long-dead Tribute had once walked.
Sniff
I stopped and laid a hand on Oaken's arm. "Did you hear that?" I whispered.
"What?" he whispered back.
Snuff
"Oh. That."
It would have been funny if it wasn't the Hunger Games. When we met Alysanne in the basement she already had a huge bruise all over her nose, leaving it all stuffy. When Flint threw the can he must have made it even worse. Alysanne had been wandering the Arena for days barely able to breathe.
The sound was coming from two rooms ahead of us. Oaken and I crept to the door and listened. It sounded like she was pretty deep into the room. We glanced at each other and knew there was no better moment. Oaken threw the door open.
Alysanne Audren- District Six female (15)
In the smaller offices I could just glance inside and see no one was there. The bigger offices on each floor were a lot roomier and I actually went inside them to poke around. It was exhausting to go into every one and clear it. I never knew which one Clair and Oaken would be in. I'd been expecting mortal combat for hours and had no idea which instant it would start.
The door to the office flew open so sharply it banged against the wall. I saw Clair and Oaken outlined against the hall for an instant before they both threw something at me. As they were in the air I recognized bolos with glittering shards of glass braided into the cords. Oaken's was headed toward my throat and Clair's was haphazardly coming somewhere at my torso.
I didn't have time to block both and the choice was obvious. Before I even thought about I was bringing my fan up to swat away the bolo coming at my throat. Clair's smacked into my lower ribs and stomach. The weights thudded into my skin too lightly to do any damage. The glass shallowly scraped at my stomach as the bolo slid down and fell at my feet to lightly loop around my foot. I would have to be mindful of it so I didn't trip.
While the bolos were still in the air Oaken and Clair were coming at me. They split apart to flank me. Both had another bolo at the ready. Clair was smaller and any injury to her would likely break Oaken's resolve so I went for her first.
Clair Mushroom- District Seven female (17)
The plan was for one of us to hold Alysanne steady while the other one killed her with a bolo. In an instant I learned that Alysanne also had an agenda and it did not involve getting killed. It turns out everyone has a plan until they get fanned in the face.
I lay on the floor looking up but not really seeing. My entire face was vibrating like a tuning fork and the half that Alysanne hit was numb. I was aware of a blur as Alysanne moved and then was brought back to full clarity by the shattering pain in my leg. I sat up, screaming, and blindly shoved at her. She dropped my leg and stumbled back as Oaken rushed to my aid.
Oaken Mushroom- District Seven male (17)
Alysanne was killing Clair. She struck her in the head so hard I thought for a nightmarish second she'd died and almost immediately after twisted her leg until it almost broke. Even as Alysanne stumbled away she was resetting her position to attack me.
Before I even moved to strike Alysanne moved to block me. But the thing about a bolo... you can't really block them. Alysanne blocked my hand as I swung the bolo out at her. The base of her fan hit my hand, jarring my fingers so sharply it hurt. But the three bolo cords were still in motion. They wrapped around the fan, two of the weights clacking painfully against the back of Alysanne's hands. The weights wrapped around each other and when I yanked on them the glass ripped into Alysanne. She hissed and shot her other hand out to grab my arm and probably break it. I beat a hasty retreat by letting go of the bolo and backing away. That saved my arm from being broken but left me unarmed against an angry Alysanne with both a fan and a bolo.
Alysanne screamed and stumbled, almost falling as she dropped to one knee with her hand at her side. I looked down and saw Clair had wrapped her fallen bolo around Alysanne's foot and was yanking on it full-strength. I winced at the gory sight of jagged glass ripping into Alysanne's ankle.
With a snakelike contortion Alysanne hiked up her other leg to kick Clair. Clair saw it coming and managed to drop the bolo and dodge enough that the kick only knocked her loose instead of probably breaking her face. While Alysanne was kicking Clair I fought dirty and kicked Alysanne. It hit her in the ribs so hard it lifted her off the floor for an instant. Even as she was still settling to the floor she grabbed my foot and yanked, sending me to the floor.
Alysanne Audren- District Six female (15)
I was down. If I didn't get up in seconds I would die. The only factor on my side was that Oaken and Clair were both down too and had much less experience with mapping out a fight. I wielded my closed fan like a truncheon and jammed it into Oaken's armpit. There was a big cluster of nerves there that would not only cause unexpected pain but would also hinder his mobility. I brought the fan back up to strike his throat and with any luck collapse it.
Knifing pain shot through the leg still supporting me as Clair sawed at it with her bolo. I fell heavily on my side and curled around to swipe her at her elbow with my fan, breaking her grip and toppling her forward. Stinging pain prickled at me from the half-dozen ragged cuts on my legs and hand.
I turned back to engage Oaken just as he threw himself heavily on my upper torso. Two weights came down on either side of my neck as he pressed the sharp cords down on my throat. I froze for an instant, unable to make a drastic move without cutting my own throat. I redirected my efforts into beating at his face and side with my fan without moving my body. But even with those efforts I knew we were almost at checkmate.
Oaken knew it too. He shoved the weights as far under the sides of my neck as he could and shifted himself until he was crouching by the top of my head. He braced his feet on my shoulders and shoved off. The force nearly snapped my neck and sent shards of glass shoving up into my throat. Even more than the glass, the sheer power of the angle and position crushed the cord into my throat with such force I could feel flesh and cartilage collapsing.
The Careers are dead, I thought to myself. The Audren luck didn't extend to me. I was part of a sprawling and ever-growing graveyard of victims spanning from the first dozen shot down in the first Games to my innocent friend Lacey. Someday this would be over and there would be a reckoning. It just hadn't come fast enough for us.
3rd place: Alysanne Audren- Columbian necktie, essentially
Some readers might have expected a more drawn-out endgame from someone with Alysanne's skills. The quickness of the death was actually deliberate on my part since I didn't want to give Alysanne a torturous death and drew the curtain quickly to prevent that. Realistically the last moments would have taken longer and had more dying attempts to escape. In my eyes it didn't matter because the placing had been decided either way so I didn't include them though they would have happened in reality. Alysanne was a wild card just like Hypatia thought. She benefited massively from me choosing to take a lot of less orthodox paths this time and killing all the Careers early. She was a legacy character but people connected more to her sincere friendships with Arroyo and Lacey. She could have won, just like most Tributes in my writing. I just picked another story. Thanks Maia for Alysanne and I regret that I only get to save one out of twenty-four characters entrusted to me.
SO. Something of a controversial choice, I'm aware. At this point in the story all I can offer you is the knowledge that I have a vision for this story that I am confident enough that I chose to do this. I made this a bizarro Games and that meant a lot of gambles. I'm letting it ride until the end and we'll see if I made the right call.