Skada Socket- District Five female (15)
It wouldn't last forever. Me and the rest of us sitting around in the blacksmith shop telling stories. Playing charades. Arm-wrestling, which had been Irina's idea and in hindsight seemed rather self-serving. Though Nene put up an admirable fight and it had been hilarious seeing Irina's eyes water and her cheeks go red. It hung in the air all around me like the palpable drop in pressure before the coming of a storm. Eventually there would be another encounter. We would lose more allies. The next day we'd sit around and one spot would be empty- our circle would be a little bit smaller. One of us, best-case scenario, would get home and slowly realize that that emptiness was forever. We wouldn't be getting home and seeing Elle and Richard waiting for us. No more cannonballs. No more elephants. Just people who would never forget.
"Who's up for Silly Duck?" I asked, putting on a smile and throwing off the thoughts as I sat up and crossed my legs.
"Me!" Tabitha said. She didn't really have to say it. Tabitha was always up for Silly Duck. We gathered around in a loose circle- my cheeriness faltered a little when I saw our once-round circle had been reduced to more of a square- and started picking names.
"I'll be Polka-dot Duck," Lester said.
"I'll be Strong Duck," Irina said.
"I'll be Tubby Duck," I said, picking the first thing that came to mind.
"I'll be, uh, Green Duck," Nene said, clearly trying to be more whimsical than last time, when she'd picked "Yellow Duck".
"I'll be..." Tabitha pretended to deliberate. "Silly Duck!" It was a time-honored ritual to always pretend that this time Tabitha might pick something other than Silly Duck.
We started slapping our knees lightly, quickly getting into rhythm with each other.
"Tubby Duck, Green Duck," I chanted to start us off, my words matching the slaps.
Nene panicked a little at being called on so quickly. "Green Duck Strong Duck," she chanted, off-beat but still fast enough to not end the game.
"Strong Duck, Polka-dot Duck," Irina continued the chain. We went on, slowly increasing our speed until it was difficult just to think of another duck's name, let alone say it before the clapping left us behind. At last we lost when I fumbled "Polka-dot Duck".
It was unbelievable how much fun that stupid game was. It never failed to bring me back to all the other times we'd played it over the years. It was a simple, repetitive ritual that was as comforting as it was goofy. And you didn't even need anything to play it other than friends.
Lester looked out the window a moment later. His casual tone and untroubled expression saved what would otherwise have been a terrifying statement.
"Oh hey. Careers on horses."
Lester Browning, District Three male (16)
I liked to dream big but there were plenty of things I didn't think I'd ever see in my lifetime. High among them was two Careers on horses. But sure enough, outside the window, so far away I could barely see them, two horses were walking past the window with two riders on their backs. The only pair in the Arena other than ourselves- at least as far as I knew- was Alice and Talise. Even if there was another alliance, the Careers were the only ones who could afford to be bold enough to ride out in the open. So it seemed Alice and Talise had horses now.
"Horses? What?!" Nene asked. She scrambled to her feet and ran to the window.
"Careers?!" Irina asked, tensing and puffing up like a cat.
"Wow, horses," Tabitha said from beside Nene.
"Those were here the whole time? Aw man, we should have found them first," Skada said.
My thoughts lay elsewhere. While Nene excitedly pointed out how cute the horses were, I was starting to think about how we could use this.
"They're going that way," Tabitha said, pointing sideways from where she and Nene were peeking out while crouched under the windowsill. The Careers were too far away to see us and they were heading for the opposite side of town.
"They must be checking over there again," Irina said.
"Which means they're not here," Lester said.
"Yeah?" Irina asked, already sensing I was getting an idea.
"So they're not in their camp and we can raid it," I finished. We'd been waiting for night, trying to make our last half bottle of water last until we could sneak out and hopefully find some safe water somewhere. But the Careers had probably poisoned everything they could find and even one night of searching would burn up most of the water in our systems. The only water we could be sure was safe was the Careers'.
"They're still going that way," Tabitha said from the window. I glanced over at the Careers getting farther and farther away. It didn't take much deliberation.
"Let's do it," Irina said.
Tabitha Sparks, District Three female (15)
I felt like I was sneaking into someone else's bedroom. Literally I was, since the Careers slept in the general store. More metaphorically, there was an ominous sense of trespassing and danger as I followed Irina and Lester into the Careers' camp. Most of the wares were still on the shelves but scattered around the store was the evidence that Alice and Talise lived there. The blankets piled on the floor, for one. A few empty jars piled in a corner. A brownish stain on the floor from when one of the Careers had sat down after messily killing someone.
"Wow, look at all this," Skada said. "There's so much stuff."
"Let's just take the water and get out of here. It's scary here," Nene said. I was with her. No matter how far away the Careers were I still felt like they were going to show up any second and call the police. Of course that was silly. There were no police here. They'd just kill us.
"There's some," Lester said. I looked where he was pointing and saw an almost-full bottle tucked underneath a table. Irina picked it up and examined it suspiciously.
"What if it's more poisoned stuff they were going to put out later?" she asked.
"I feel like they'd bring the poison and put it in the water directly, but you never know," Lester said. He reached for the bottle and Irina handed it over.
"This is kinda gross, but they drank from this one," Lester said after opening the bottle and looking inside. Irina peeked into the bottle's neck and wrinkled her nose.
"Either Alice or Talise has a backwashing problem," she reported.
"Let me see," I said, morbidly curious. I looked into the bottle and saw some tiny flecks of what looked like maybe crackers. Oh, okay. That's not as bad as I was afraid of. I could stand to swap spit with Alice and Talise if it meant not dying. I handed the bottle back to Lester and had to prod him to take it, since he was dreamily looking out the window.
"They're still pretty far away," he commented.
"You got another idea?" Irina asked.
"They probably took all the guns from the gun shop," Lester said.
"Yeah," Skada said.
"You think they took all the gunpowder?"
Not me forgetting the circus kids don't have water and having to hastily stitch it into what I had planned for this chapter.