Yes, they can work well as a team. Now they just have to get rid of a few more tributes, and they'll be the last ones left.
.oOo.
Lumara Barrett, 15
District Four Female
1 Kill
The first thing they do is stack all of the bodies.
"Watch out!" Triton calls as he grabs the body of another outlier and stacks it on top of the rest of the pile. "Lumara, try helping Thetis. Dimitri and I can finish these last ones."
Lumara nods, hurrying over to help the blonde. Thetis smiles, grabbing under the arms of another outlier - their face is too slashed apart for Lumara to see who it is. She feels queasy. "Here, let's get this over and then we'll be finished. We get to explore today - and we only have to find the last six before we're finished. Doesn't that sound great?"
"Yeah, that's insane." The girls grunt with effort before lifting the body onto another, completing the pile of fourteen bodies.
Nine more to go.
They all just stand around for a minute or so after, feeling too awkward to say anything. No one really knows how to react now, with Dimitri and Lumara in the alliance and with two of their number dead. But no one's made a move to push each other out - after the resounding success of the bloodbath, they're all confident that they'll do well.
Yes, they can work well as a team. Now they just have to get rid of a few more tributes, and they'll be the last ones left.
"So, should we head outside?" Triton finally asks, looking around the circle at the rest of the careers. "It would be best if we just start to hunt the other tributes now, so we don't let them get too far away. They have, what, a headstart of about half an hour?"
"But the arena is only so large, after all. I think we should explore this place, first - if we figure out what's inside, we can get all of our resources in one tidy spot." Lumara looks around the circle, her face defiant. She doesn't want to go out into the arena yet, not when they haven't done anything in here.
Dimitri looks confused, but Triton and Thetis give each other a look before Triton nods reluctantly. "...Fine. Maybe we'll find something in here, after all."
Lumara smiles. She's gotten her way.
They head out in a group of three, Thetis remaining behind at the cornucopia to make sure that the outliers don't get into their supplies. She had volunteered to do so - probably because she and Triton don't trust their allies fully yet. But Lumara doesn't mind that - right now, they're listening to her. They're treating her as a part of the team.
She could win.
Triton is the first to head up the stairs and gives a cry of delight when he gets to the top. "There's a whole ski lift up her and everything! There's skis, there are snowboards, there's everything we need to make it through the snow! We're going to do so well with these - I'm sure that the other tributes won't find anything like this."
It's Dimitri who spots the ski cabin, a few hundred metres away from the chalet, that's nestled into the mountain. From the large logo with a pair of skis painted in the middle, the words 'Capitol Skis' emblazoned in bright red letters, they all know that it's a place where other tributes can get skis and equipment to venture into the arena - and the ski lift that Triton had seen is right next to it. Whatever lead that they thought they had on the outliers is gone for sure, especially if they've all put their differences aside long enough to get outfitted with a pair of skis and head into the arena.
But as they get their skis on and head downstairs to tell Thetis of their discovery, Lumara feels like she's finally keeping pace with everyone else here.
.oOo.
Yes, he has to be careful.
.oOo.
Gilbert Dongalls, 15
District Six Male
0 Kills
He still can't believe that he's here.
He had ran in the bloodbath: ran, and tried to get out from one of the doors. There had been a pack next to his plate that was just close enough for him to grab, and that had been it. He hadn't known what to do when he had seen the barricades over the doors. He had frozen, he had stared at the doors as the girl from Five got out and Calaeno was killed - oh, Calaeno's dead, they're dead and gone and now he has no one that he knows left here. He misses them. He misses them a lot.
When he had seen them get killed, he felt like he couldn't move a muscle. He just closed his eyes and prayed that the boy from Four would make his death quick, that he wouldn't make it painful.
But when the boy from Four had left the door without even noticing Gil in the corner, Gil had ran out as well.
Now he's in the cabin, putting on ski-boots and skis so that he can get through the arena. Outside, it's just deep, deep snow where there aren't snow trails: if someone doesn't have skis or snowshoes, they won't make it very far. So he came in here to check to see if there were any skis that he could fit on and use to move through the arena - instead, he had come across the girl from Five, clipping on one last ski before noticing Gil.
And then she had left, and now's he's here with the skis that the game makers had made for him. There are signs above twenty-four cubbies in here, one for every tribute: D1F, D3M, D6F, the list goes on and on all the way to the skis for the girl from Twelve. Most of them won't be touched - so many people had died in the bloodbath that he had lost count.
He clips on the last ski and looks down at the red and white pair: they're long and thin, but strong. He wouldn't break them unless he did something really stupid.
Right now, Gil doesn't want to do anything stupid. He wants to live.
To live! He hadn't thought that he would think that when he got in here: no, he had thought that he wouldn't think anything at all. Once he got into the arena, Gil had expected to die in hte bloodbath first. Like Tony. Like what Gil deserved.
But he's still here.
Gil grabs the bag that's labelled with his name, where he's stuffed the boots he had first been wearing. Now he has two bags to look after: both carrying items he needs to survive in the Games. The ski boots aren't designed for deep snow, and this is the only food he might have in the arena.
Yes, he has to be careful.
Grabbing his ski-poles, he heads out of the door and up.
Then promptly falls down. It's harder to use these skis than he had originally thought.
But as he keeps moving forward, keeps getting back up, he sees the ski-lift: dozens of large seats, suspended below the cable by thick wires, all travelling up and down the mountain. One comes closer to him, and he scrambles to sit down so he can be taken to the very top. He can get to the top of the mountain in this. He can find a place to hide.
He can live up there.
And the most surprising thing of all: he wants to live.
.oOo.
Without Cody, she might be dead by now.
.oOo.
Bayleigh Mountainson, 12
District Ten Female
0 Kills
She hides in the snow until the boy from Six passes her and heads to the ski-lift, sitting down in one of the seats and being whisked away like he's on a conveyer belt. Then she darts into the ski-house, putting on her skis quickly and running back out as quickly as she can. It's hard to move in the skis, but she's starting to figure it out - just well enough to stumble her way onto one of the seats as it rises up the mountain.
Bayleigh shivers - the wind is cold on her face, and she only has a small red hat that she had found in the ski-house. She's happy that she saw it - the raised red letters that declared the building to be a place for 'Capitol Skis!' and she had ran there as fast as she can. But when she saw that someone else was inside, she had hid until he left.
She doesn't want to make a mistake that she'll regret.
And now she's almost to the ski-lift, continuing to slide on the groomed trail at the bottom of the mountain. It's huge, vast expanses of pine trees dotting the peak as little trails of white curve in and out of the forests. If someone doesn't have skis, it'll be hard for them to get through here - although they can always find a place to hide at the top of the mountain until they have a chance to get skis themselves.
At least she has them.
Boom! The first cannon echoes throughout the arena, and Bayleigh shivers. One of those is Cody - she still can't believe that he's dead. She hadn't realized what he had done until he was dead, but he had saved her. He had stopped the others from killing her.
Without Cody, she might be dead by now.
A stubborn tear starts to fall from her eye and traces down her cheek, the wind blowing it away. Bayleigh puts a hand to her cheek, but the trail is half-frozen - it must be cold out here.
Maybe there'll be shelter at the top of the mountain.
As the ski-lift continues to swing around the bottom, the cable turning around on the line to head back up the mountain, Bayleigh tries to sit down on one of the seats. But the momentum knocks her away, pushing her into the snow where she's treated to a cold face and the loss of her hat. After putting the hat back on, she tries again - this time miming a sitting motion in mid-air so the seat won't knock her forward like last time.
It works.
The seat is polished as clean as it can possibly be, and Bayleigh pats the metal absently. The lift moves up the mountain at a quick pace, and she holds onto both sides of the seat so that she won't fall off. She feels comfortable for now, but she's scared that a nasty gust of wind might knock her into the snow and all the way back down the mountain. She doesn't want that to happen.
She doesn't need that to happen.
But she makes it to the top, and jumps off just before the seat whirls around and heads down the mountain again. Clutching her ski-poles, she looks around - already there are ski trails, heading off in several different directions, and she sees a trail of footprints heading in yet another direction. Tributes have made it here before her.
She takes a large way down, falling several times but always getting back up. She's being careful to not hurt herself - if she breaks a leg on the slopes, she'll be stuck there until the careers find her and finish her off.
But when Bayleigh finds the little cabin in the woods, smoke slowly drifting up and above the pines, she knows that she's found a place to hide.
.oOo.
He should be easier on them.
.oOo.
Dimitri Muller, 16
District Two Male
1 Kill
"Who do you think killed Frosty?" Triton asks as they move towards the ski lift, his breaths being let out in large, frosty clouds. "Is there anyone out there who could have possibly killed her?"
"Eh," Dimitri replies. "Probably a strong outlier - maybe they're dead in the bloodbath. That's our best bet."
He doesn't know who killed Frosty - she did volunteer and mark herself up for death from the gods, after all, but he's not as sure what he feels about volunteers anymore.
After all, he's working with them, isn't he?
They continue towards the lift, Lumara struggling behind them. "Wait up!" she cries as she pushes forward with the skis, and Triton falls into the snow as he looks back to see how she's faring. "I can't keep pace with your large legs!"
Dimitri lets out a bark of a laugh, shaking his head in amusement. He likes the girl - she's opinionated, spoiled, and half out of her mind, but she's strong.
It doesn't hurt that it's easier on his conscience to like her.
The three finally get to the ski lift and clamber onto one of the chairs, Lumara nearly tumbling off of the seat. But the boys grab her arms and hold her upright, all of them travelling up the slope and to the top of the mountain.
"Hold on!" Triton laughs as Lumara clutches the back of the seat with both hands - her ski poles nearly taking his eye out. "We can't lose you this soon into the Games - although it's further along than it feels."
"Ten left," Lumara murmurs as the chair climbs up to the top of the mountain. "And then it'll be just us."
"That's right," Triton replies, and Dimitri bristles. What right do they have to claim places in the finale? That's for the gods to decide, not for the tributes. They can't just go around, claiming that they deserve spots in the finale.
Then again, they don't know any better. They don't know about the gods, they don't know what he knows.
He should be easier on them.
His body relaxes with the thought, and he gives a small smile. It would be easier if he gives them the benefit of the doubt, that if they knew who the gods were they wouldn't do what they do.
Yes, he'll be kinder to them. Perhaps that's what the gods want - maybe that's why he's thinking that right now.
He likes this idea.
They quickly reach the top of the mountain and look around, noticing the several different ski trails that head into the forest. Triton and Dimitri both look at one another, indecisive, but Lumara picks a trail and whisks down it. "Hurry up, you two! We have to get to the bottom!"
And they laugh as they whisk down, knowing that they're moving too fast to stop and properly search. Lumara almost has a spectacular collision with a tree, and Triton faceplants after flying over a set of bumps in what was otherwise a lovely, smooth hill, but they make it down.
They're having fun.
And they'll keep searching.
Yes, I hate non-death chapters after the bloodbath. Unfortunately, everyone's spreading too far out for that to happen. Hence, you have this.
A handy list for you (and me)
Have skis: Dimitri, Thetis, Triton, Lumara, Audra, Gilbert, Bayleigh
No skis: Ellington, Birchwood, Chase
Enjoy. I'll see you tomorrow with another chapter! Until then, TheAmazingJAJ