Irina Sokolova, District One female (18)
Nene lifted her foot to take a step closer to us. It started up in a smooth motion and came down in a broken crumple as the life snapped out of her with the crack of the bullet. I caught a blurred glimpse of her blood-spattered face as she hit the ground facedown, her head bouncing flatly with force like a second punch after the impact of the bullet. Tabitha screamed raggedly as Lester stared in shock and I reflexively threw out an arm to push Tabitha back even though she was making no move toward Nene.
Alice had changed the game. I stood staring at Nene's body, irrationally expecting Alice to shoot it again. Over and over it resounded in my head how quickly it had happened and how there had been no warning. This wasn't a war anymore. It was a madwoman with a gun and the three people she was trying to hunt down. I should have been horrified and grieved that Nene was gone but the Career in me took over and all I could think about was how we were going to stay alive.
"It's okay. She can only see in front of the window," Lester said as he bent over Tabitha and hugged her. It sounded like he was trying to make it true rather than convince her of it. He knew he couldn't keep Tabitha safe with some comforting words. There was someone on the other side of our walls pointing a gun at us and waiting for a chance to pull the trigger. If she saw any of us, even sweet innocent Tabitha, she would kill us.
I could read Lester's thoughts on his face. He was thinking the same thing I was.
"It's so... dirty," I whispered. We all knew it wasn't like they told us in the Academy. People didn't fight fair. They fought to stay alive. We knew about poisons or booby traps or other indirect and "cowardly" ways to kill. I'd just never even thought to expect a gun. I'd never thought the Games would be nothing but someone sitting in a safe remote location with an actual firearm waiting for a helpless and unaware victim to walk in front of the sights. It actually boiled my blood. I was actively angry that the Capitol would allow something this unfair. Kill us. Make us turn on each other, but shoot us like fish in a barrel? I'd never thought the Capitol could disappoint me.
Crawling under the window so I'd be out of sight, I grabbed a tarp off the ground and hung it over the window as Tabitha's sobs receded into shaky breaths. I blocked Alice's view and winced at the noise when she sent a single bullet through as a reminder that she could.
"We have to move quickly," I said, rousing Tabitha and Lester. If we used the side exit we could get to the next building without Alice having a shot unless she revealed herself.
"Where are we going?" Lester asked.
"Back to the gun shop," I said. There was still plenty of gunpowder and I had a terrible idea that I might have, in my more innocent days, thought the Capitol would take exception to. But those days were gone. On the way out I grabbed two fistfuls of nails and shoved them into my pockets. The Capitol gave us a dirty fight. I'd give them a dirty bomb.
Lester Browning, District Three male (16)
I couldn't wrap my head around it. I couldn't make myself understand that I could be walking around one moment and a dead body the next without even knowing when it would happen. That there could be a timer over my head counting down the seconds and I couldn't see it. The gun store was in the same row as the blacksmith shop but we still had to cross the alleyways between each store. Alice shouldn't have been able to get to us without going around the blacksmith store and revealing herself but I still couldn't shake the feeling that at any second I could get a bullet through my head without even knowing what had happened.
Irina and I kept watch on the windows as Tabitha poured gunpowder into a jar, pausing periodically to add layers of nails. I didn't even want to look at her doing it. If I hadn't been afraid of her getting sniped I would have had her watch the window so I could make the bomb. There was nothing I could think of that was uglier than Tabitha studding nails into a dirty bomb. She should have been home in Three turning somersaults and honking a silly red nose.
"There's definitely no guns here, right?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Nope. We looked everywhere," Irina said as Tabitha handed her the bomb. Her face went panicked and she threw herself to the side as a bullet cracked into the wood near her head.
"Yeah. Me too."
Alice Mason, District Two female (17)
The circus kids would be watching for me out the windows facing the buildings between the blacksmith shop and wherever they ended up. What they wouldn't be expecting was for me to run across the street while they were no doubt clearing out of the blacksmith's shop side exit, then sprint down the other side of the opposite row of buildings, watching to make sure I didn't cross any alleyways at the same time they did. I kept skulking along with them until I saw them go into the gun shop were I'd only three days ago stocked up on bullets. By the end of my little run I was a little out of breath and a little uncertain about my enthusiasm for the lovely kitsune mask someone had sent me. It looked cool as hell but it was a little hard to breathe after a good sprint.
The circus kids had gone into the rear door of the gun shop, leaving the front door for me to surprise them with. I simply started walking toward it- the narrow doorway didn't give much of a view in or out, letting me get pretty close before I could see much of the interior of the shop.
"There's definitely no guns here, right?" I heard Lester say as I walked across the street toward the shop.
"Nope. We looked everywhere," Irina said. I stepped closer and saw her over by the rear window looking for me. She looked up and right at me just before I could get my rifle up and aim.
"Yeah. Me too," I said just before I shot.
My bullet cracked into the wall beside Irina's head. Even if she hadn't dodged I still would have missed- I wasn't in a stable position and I hadn't had time to set up a shot. I was just using a wildly unstable gun from a standing position. It had been more of a bold gamble than a calculated move, though it was a pretty safe gamble when I had a gun and my opponents had knives. Really I should have waited but I'd never been a patient person.
I fired again as Irina shoved Tabitha out the exit. Without a wide base on the ground to keep me stable the recoil jerked my shot so badly I didn't even get within a foot of Irina. Once Tabitha was out the door Irina ducked after her just ahead of my third shot, which hit the doorframe and would have hit her arm if she hadn't been quick enough. Lester darted out after them. I ran across the store floor and out the back door after them. I dropped to one knee and took a second to line up one final shot as they were running toward the cover of the next building.
Tabitha Sparks, District Three female (15)
Another gunshot cracked into the air, sending my heart through my chest. I couldn't even think as I ran. I only registered blurred impressions, like the fact that I was still on my feet and didn't feel any pain. Less than a second later I remembered the cry I'd heard and I looked behind me to see if Irina had been hit. She was still there, running right behind me so I couldn't even see Alice.
We rounded the corner of the next building and I could think again. Immediately I realized Lester wasn't with us and was about to panic when he appeared around the corner, his hand on his shoulder and his face pained but still on his feet. We ran through two buildings and into the third one, which didn't have any windows. We found ourselves in a barbershop and Irina and I dragged two of the heavy chairs in front of the doors while Lester sat heavily on the floor.
"You got shot!" I yelled as I ran to him. Blood was running all down his arm, staining his shirt in long streaks.
"Yeah," he said, his mouth tight and his eyes wrinkled. "It hurts." He pulled his hand away from his shoulder to let us take a look at the cratered wound. Right away blood started squirting out not unlike a spray bottle. It made my stomach heave to see blood just freely spraying out like that. I had to stand still for a second to let my vision stop swimming.
"Don't move," Irina said as she hunted around for something to stop the bleeding. She came back with a white towel and jammed it onto the wound.
As she was trying to tie it into place Lester toppled over. What's going on? I thought, too mixed-up and terrified to consider what might be happening. It's only a shoulder wound. That's where every main character ever gets shot...
I knelt by Lester, gently shaking him and trying to reorient him. You're not supposed to let injured people go to sleep! I repeated mindlessly. I gently prodded at him and called his name.
"It won't stop bleeding!" Irina said as she pressed down on the rapidly reddening towel.
"No no no it has to stop bleeding!" I shouted back. "Lester! Lester!"
Something clattered to the ground beside me as Irina shot to her feet, leaving me to keep pressure on Lester's shoulder. I threw myself bodily on the bandage, putting all my weight on it.
"Lester don't fall asleep!"
Irina shoved me aside and laid a stick of some sort on Lester's shoulder. She started winding a strip of fabric around it, tightening the fabric until Lester's skin puckered and turned white.
"We're fixing it!" I told Lester, shaking him more violently. "Wake up!"
"Wake up, Lester!"
"Lester, wake up!"
Lester Browning, District Three male (16)
Alice was aiming at Irina. Irina was right behind Tabitha. I was right behind Irina. Alice was aiming at Irina, but her gun wasn't good and she was wobbling slightly as she knelt on one knee. The bullet didn't end up hitting any of us in a vital spot. After the boom of the gunshot I felt pain bursting in my shoulder. The impact knocked me forward but I managed to keep my feet. I took a few stumbling steps and ducked around the corner, putting me out of Alice's range for long enough that we could run through a few buildings and find a spot to hole up. As soon as Irina shut the door behind us I remembered all at once that I'd been shot and I toppled to the ground.
It's just a shoulder wound, I thought, hoping Tabitha wasn't too worried. Everyone says you feel cold when you're about to die. I certainly didn't feel cold. I was warm all over. It was like I was in a warm bath. Then, like someone had flipped a switch, I felt the cold.
"Lester!" Tabitha was shaking me. Had I fallen asleep? How could I fall asleep when I'd just been shot? And when my shoulder hurt even more than when it had happened? It felt like someone was strangling my arm, or trying to pop it out of the socket.
Blood... blood is warm.
I'd never felt so tired in my entire life. Not even tired. Drained. Like the life had flowed out of my body. I could sense Tabitha's arms around me and faintly hear her saying something but it felt like I weighed a thousand pounds. All I could do was lie on Tabitha's knees and try to remember where I was.
"Lester, wake up," Tabitha said. She was always joking around... I was already awake.
"You're such a joker," I muttered, only half-aware I'd done it. Clarity fell over me and I meant my next sentence with all my heart.
"I hope you never stop joking."
4th place: Lester Browning- blood loss from Alice's gunshot wound
Alice might have some skills but shooting an old-timey gun from a kneeling stance is, well, like playing a slot machine. But at the same time, sometimes slot machines actually pay out. With an awkward place for a tourniquet and also bad materials and an inexperienced medic, "just a flesh wound" can still end up with someone bleeding to death. So with great tragedy we lose Lester, who chose to take up the rear and thus put himself in the most dangerous position for his allies. Lester had a single Victor vote but PLOT TWIST he was actually death-voted by his creator. That doesn't happen much but it DOES happen and that's why I always make sure everyone knows that's an option. Lester was designed for a good time, not a long time, and he reached the point where Vr decided to let go. But he was a loyal, noble friend and we will all miss him.