Malcolm Royden- District One male (18)
Well call me Long John Silver, I guess.
I wasn't sure if my ankle was broken or not. Cold logic said it almost certainly was, since Callum had swung a crowbar into it at full speed. By the time I got back to the Cornucopia it was so swollen I couldn't get my boot off and I was just hoping it didn't swell more and cut off the circulation. It hurt enough that I didn't want to walk on it but being a Career meant that wasn't an option. If Alice and Talise thought I was vulnerable they'd kill me. I knew that because I would do the same to them. Already Talise and I were side-eyeing each other, both wondering if the other would make a move. Alice was blissfully ignorant. From what she'd told me about her life I suspected she had a razor-sharp sense for impending abuse but Talise and I weren't cruel and short-tempered like her mother. Our violence came from pragmatism and we weren't giving off the same warning signs.
"You two want to take a breather before we go after the circus kids?" Alice asked as she ran a hunting knife over a razor strop. The sandpapery sliding noise was comforting to someone like me. It sounded like maintenance class at the Academy.
"No," Talise and I both said quickly.
"Okay, tough guys," she shrugged. "Have it your way."
There was no sign of anyone when we reached the house the circus kids had been in. Alice cautiously got closer to the window and took a look inside.
"Skada's bloodstain is on the floor and there are a few drops leading to the door. Nothing on the stairs," she said. "Oh, and Brock's body is still in there. Gross."
"They took off, then," Talise said, her frustration evident. They'd patched Skada up as best they could and probably carried her as they left. She was still seriously hurt and Irina was still missing her fingers but that didn't matter if we didn't know where they were.
"They could be anywhere," I said.
"There's so many places to hide," Alice said. "This will take forever."
Of course I would be the one to come up with the idea. All Careers were told to do whatever it takes to win. Very few Careers actually followed through with that all the way.
"What if there weren't many places to hide?" I asked.
"Huh?" Alice asked. Talise looked at me. I saw the light go on in her eyes. Her instant of aversion and her almost as swift decision to ignore it. It surprised me. I hadn't thought Talise was as merciless as I was.
"Let's burn it," I said.
Deciduous Stowercraft- District Seven male (17)
Tyler and I were huddled in the cellar of our house, trying to sleep but not able to, for obvious reasons. We'd found some tools and nailed the cellar door shut so the only way in our out was the coal chute. It made our shelter more or less impenetrable because the chute was so narrow only one person could come in at a time. If a Career tried to get in we could kill them while they were still half-stuck.
"Sometime let's try to get out and see the layout of the Arena," I said. If I couldn't sleep I could at least think of plans to get us out of here. "If we can find somewhere with medicines or even a blacksmith shop or something we could probably find something poisonous. Then we cold start poisoning the horse troughs. Maybe we could even sneak in close to the Careers' camp while most of them are out hunting." That would be Tyler's part of the plan. He was way faster than I was and it made more sense he would do the physical stuff.
"We should really stay here and hide out but I don't know if I can," Tyler said. He kept looking restlessly out the window. "I want to get out there and get stuff done."
"If we could just get one or two Careers that would break up their stronghold," I said. I shifted uncomfortably as a rock in the dirt floor poked into my backside. I wouldn't have been able to sleep even if the Careers weren't hunting us. I'd never been in a place like this. I knew that made me privileged but I didn't choose the family I was born into.
"That we agree on," Tyler said. I wasn't sure if it was his tough-guy background or some personal vendetta but he definitely seemed to have it in for the Careers. That went perfectly with my plans.
A sudden crashing noise startled me so greatly I halfway jumped up. I looked up just as a floorboard from the roof above us swung down and crashed into me. I wave of hot air swept over me as the heavy wood smacked me to the ground. The breath rushed out of me as I hit the dirt, the wood pinning me almost face-first with unbearable pressure. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the floor above us was a near solid sheet of flame. The fire was so bright it looked like broad daylight instead of the middle of the night.
There was a sudden pressure on my arm as Tyler tried to pull me free from a growing pile of rubble. Dust swirled all around us, mixing with the smoke to stick in my throat and scorch my lungs. Less than three seconds had passed and I was overwhelmed with the panicking certainty that I was going to die. The house had caught on fire and I was burning alive.
I can't breathe it's too heavy I can't move I can't breathe
Tyler blurred over me as he dug at the wood and ash. Somehow he pulled me loose. I was barely conscious as he pulled me through the coal chute. Cool night air washed over me and I gasped for breath that still wouldn't come. I didn't know why it wouldn't come. Something was stopping me from breathing.
I lay on my back looking up at the stars blurring behind a sheet of smoke. The houses on either side of me were both on fire. Tyler was bent over me, his face streaked in soot.
I can't breathe, I tried to tell him. Something inside me was broken and I could feel the life leaking out of me. I reached up a hand and clung to Tyler's shirt, weakly tugging him toward me.
"You'll be all right," Tyler begged instead of saying. He swept me up in his arms and clutched me into him. I knew I was never going to get back to Jude. I hoped he forgave me for loving the one I was with.
Alice "Marionette" Mason- District Two female (17)
The Arena looked beautiful on fire. The wooden buildings were backlit by the rising columns of flame that spread easily from one flammable structure to the next. Green and blue flamed curled up off some of the buildings as chemicals in their pain reacted to the fire. Warmth and light poured off the inferno like a man-made sun.
I didn't tell Talise and Mal how I felt. They already thought I was weird at best and psychotic at worst. Technically I was psychotic but it was still in check so far. Medications can take a long time to wash out of a system. If I was lucky the Games would be over before things started to go bad. If not... people assumed it would make me an unstoppable psycho killer. More likely I'd wander into a basement and start peeling my skin off because I thought it was an alien parasite. That's the thing most people don't get about illnesses like mine- they were a lot more dangerous to the patient than to observers.
Anyway, I thought the Arena was beautiful on fire because of my childhood. I was used to things far worse than a fire. My whole life was like that and when someone is exposed to so much pain and ugliness for so long, they start to take whatever good things they could get. The Arena was burning down, buildings crumbling and Tributes scrambling to get away before the heat tore them apart. One cannon had already sounded. Someone was dead and heading back to their family in a pine box. But the flames were beautiful and as the night went on I was going to enjoy their curling colors.
"I think you can tell how expensive alcohol is by how well it burns," I said as I picked up another bottle. Unsurprisingly there had been a ton of alcohol in the general store and at least a few bottles in almost all the other stores. My allies and I stood at the house at the end of the next row to the one we'd already set ablaze. Once we got one fire going it spread easily all down the row. We'd move on to main street if we had to but the bulk of the Tributes were hiding out in the houses on the edges of the Arena anyway. We'd burn some to death and the rest we'd burn out, out to be exposed in a smoldering Arena and forced closer to our camp if they wanted to get any water or supplies.
I smashed the neck of the bottle against the corner of the house and poured the whiskey all over the wall. Malcolm threw an armful of the straw we'd taken from the livery and I poured some more booze on top of that. While we were gathering supplies I learned a fun fact from Talise. Contrary to what most people thought, lighters were invented before modern matches. I felt like a gangster flicking a lighter until the tiny finger of flame winked on. I held the lighter to the straw and it went up like... a match. We'd already doused the other four walls of the house and the flame licked across it like a breeze spreading across grass.
"How many do you think we'll get?" Talise asked.
"Eventually, all of them," I said cheerfully.
14th place: Deciduous Stowercraft- Collapsed house from fire caused by Careers
This worked out perfectly because Deciduous' submitter didn't want him to win and had almost this exact death planned for him. Votes ebbed and flowed for Cid so when a low point (-5) came I took the opportunity. Deciduous had some personality flaws that might have made him unpopular but actually the votes never mentioned that. I think it was just people trying to throw anyone but their own Tribute under the bus. Deciduous' flaws made him a lot more realistic than most Tributes- it's pretty brave to actually give your character some unlikeable traits. But despite a few human errors Deciduous was still a loving and even compassionate person. He'll be missed both by Jude and by Tyler. Thanks QueenofFunerals for giving me so much to work with so I didn't have to make it all up myself.
TIMELINE: This is the night of the second day in the Arena. Shaping up to be a short Games since the Careers got the idea for the fire so quickly.
Up next will be the cannons, since I have a few stored up now.