When the last tree's fallen
The animal can't hide
Money won't solve it
What's your alibi?
Andromeda "Andi" Knox
District 2, Female, 18
(Day 3)
...
"Are you sure?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.
"Positive. I counted them all yesterday, there's two missing." Eric replies.
We stand over the pile of bags that we had gathered together on the first day, Eric swears he had counted twenty one so we could manage what we take and how much we take each day. Now, I only count nineteen. Most people would be worried in this scenario but a sly smile appears on my face, finally, there's something to do.
"Well, well, well. Looks like we have a rat to hunt." An uncertain smile comes to Eric's face and I wake Lira and Silver up, telling them about what happened as I do. "It seems that when we went looking for water, someone decided to sneak in and take a couple of our backpacks." Lira looks at me with a confused look on her face and slightly tilts her head.
"So, what are you waking us up for?" She asks through a yawn and I roll my eyes. It seems most of the careers aren't as ambitious as I am, my parents have always pushed me to strive for greatness and that's exactly the reason I'm here. I will make them proud. I have to.
"Look, the more time we spend in here just wasting away is more of our supplies going down the train. These people need to start dropping like flies and fast but the main way we can do that is by getting out there and killing some people." I state in a speech-like manner.
"I get that, Andi. I just don't know if I can, you know." She sighs. "I don't think I can kill another person."
"Are you a career or not, Lira? Honestly, you act like you haven't trained for this your whole life!" I snap at her and her face turns red with rage, I'm ready to fight and hold my knife out. Before she can get her sword off the rack, Eric steps in between us.
"Will you two ever stop fighting? Put your weapons down and grow up." He shouts. I had never seen him angry until now, he has always had such a peaceful and laidback demeanour about him. Now that he is angry, though, I'm almost frightened of the crazy look in his eyes - I guess you can never truly find a gentle Career. "I just want to get out of here. As do all of us. Let's do whatever is best for the group, okay?"
"Killing this rat is what's best for the group!" I retaliate. "Let's get them, right now."
"And how are we going to do that?" Daniel asks without a hint of emotion in his voice.
"We trick them of course. Let's pretend we're going out hunting or something and bait them out. It's simple." Eric shrugs and Daniel nods.
"Oh, fine. I'm not doing the killing, though." Lira says, giving in
"Alright, we're going to need to shout some things so they can hear us."
"How about we go check out the water source we found last night? There could be tributes around it!" Eric shouts.
"That's a great idea." I shout back and we begin to file out of the cornucopia, walking in the direction myself and Eric went last night. We did, in fact, find a water source but we don't go that far. We crouch behind a large rock, a little distance away from the cornucopia, anyone who had seen us heading this way wouldn't have seen us crouching here.
We wait a few minutes until I see something rolling down a hill. Not something, someone, and they're running, not rolling. I begin running before the others see him and they are behind me, I hold my knife out and Xavier has a look of complete shock on his face as he sees me running after him. He runs from the cornucopia and back up the hill, scrambling up a tree.
"Stay here. He's mine." I snap at them and begin running up the hill. "Come down, Xavier. Let's not make this harder than it has to be."
"Andi? Don't do this, I helped-" He yells franticly from above.
"There's only one winner, Xavier." I interrupt, narrowing my eyes as I try to spot him through the tree. A few leaves rustle and I make my move, it's a risky one, but I'm confident in my skills. I throw the knife where I think he is and hear a deafening scream as well as a slam on the ground, I rush over behind the tree and find his body. It had felt okay, killing him, but now that I look into his face the emotions start coming to me.
Just days ago we were laughing and joking around and now I am the reason he can no longer laugh. "Wait, no...I'm sorry Xavier. I'm sorry." Tears form in his eyes and slowly drip down his dark skin. I almost jump as I notice that tears also drip down my face. I didn't mean to do it, he has to understand that. I was taken over by The Games and my stupid drive to win.
Boom. A cannon sounds.
What have I become?
Silver Rafferty
District 1, Male, 17
(Day 3)
...
I sprint down the path as fast as I can, approaching a nearby hill.
"Silver, wait up!" Kathryn shouts from behind me, her speed is nothing compared to my own.
"I head the scream, it was just down here." I manage through deep breaths. "The cornucopia must be close, we've been walking all day." It's true, we had only stopped to refill our water bottles and it was only for a few minutes. My eyes are blurry with exhaustion, I didn't sleep last night nor the night before, there's something up with Kathryn and I don't trust her one bit.
I pant as I make my way up the hill, it's steep but I'm strong and I fight through every muscle that is screaming at me to stop and rest. The pain in my feet is almost unbearable but I keep running, everyone must fear me in this arena and they are wrong to not do so. Boom. I hear a cannon in the distance followed by sobs from the top of the hill, clutching my kama, I reach the top.
Andromeda is kneeling on the floor with her hands to her face and the boy from Three is lying in front of her with a knife in his chest and mangled arms which I assume are from falling off the tree that stands next to us.
"Andromeda, in front of you!" Lira screams from down below and I see her, Eric and Daniel begin running up the hill. Before Andromeda can even anticipate what's coming, I grab her and hold my kama to her throat. I smile maliciously as they reach the top of the hill and stand in silence as they see what's happening.
"Move one muscle and I slit her throat." I snarl.
"You'll do it either way." Eric replies, coldly.
I hear footsteps behind me and turn my head to see Kathryn approaching the top of the hill. "Hurry up then, we kind of have a situation." I bark at her and catch her rolling her eyes, it only makes me more angry and I press my kama harder into Andromeda's neck, she stays silent but punches at my sides with her first - attempting to get free.
Kathryn makes it up and the six of us stand facing each other.
"What do you want, Silver?" Lira shouts and I frown at her.
"I want all of you dead."
"You can't take all of us." Daniel snaps. "Let her go and we'll allow you two to go off without any trouble."
"Oh, but Daniel, I don't think you understand. I like trouble. In fact, I thrive on it."
"Silver just let her go, this is a death wish." Kathryn murmurs and I have to refrain myself from punching her, simply because I don't want to let Andromeda out of my grip.
"Just drop the kama and be on your way." Eric states calmly and I narrow my eyes at him.
"No, I don't think I will." At that moment, I slice my blade across the neck of Andromeda and a cannon sounds almost immediately as I drop her limp body onto the grass.
"Andi!" Lira screams and drops to the floor. Kathryn begins running and I do the same, however, we don't run back where we came from and instead turn around. We run toward the cornucopia and stand outside, our weapons raised, Eric and Daniel follow us and face us yet again.
"It's 3 versus 2." Eric growls.
"It's 2 versus 2, actually. I think the two of you would much rather not kill us than risk getting injured in the process." Kathryn replies. The two look at each other and sigh.
"We'll be back." Daniel says and the two of them rush off back to Lira, helping her up and walking away.
Vinicio Santiago Huerta
District 11, Male, 18
(Day 3)
...
It had been a day full of mostly building shelter to keep ourselves warm, although, we weren't very successful. We attempted quite a few shelters but it proves to be fairly hard to keep sticks standing up when we don't have any rope, Carina suggested we go to the cornucopia to look for some but it's likely The Careers are still there and it would be good for us to keep as much of a distance from them as we possibly can.
Two cannons had sounded, fairly close to one another, I assume there had been a fight but there's no way to really know. It's sad, to me, they're just cannon shots in the distance - they are the sound that means I'm getting closer to my son - but, to others, they are the sound of a loved one's life being lost to The Capitol's hand. The Capitol is evil. There's no doubt in my mind that, if I get out of here, I will never let them tread on me again, not after what I've experienced in here. Pierro will have a better future, as his father, I'm obliged to make sure of that.
The four of us sit against trees, silently watching the still water from a pond we had found yesterday. We had refilled the two water bottles a few times now and attempted to purify the water, although, we have no real idea if we're doing it correctly. Emerald yawns and I smile kindly, indicating that it's okay for her to fall asleep. "Carina and I will take first watch." I tell the two and they both drift off without another word.
They're both so trusting. So young and so innocent. It still hasn't truly sunken in that they'll both have to die to get out, that Carina will have to die. I scoot closer to her and feel her head place itself on my shoulder, if only it were so easy to admit my feelings to her. I can't, though. I know that. It'll only hurt one of us even more when the other dies, I can't do that to her and I can't do that to myself. I can't suffer that same heartbreak I had felt when I was left alone to care for Pierro as a single father.
"Do you want to get out of here, Vinicio?" Carina whispers.
"More than anything." I sigh and she chuckles under her breath. "Don't we all?"
"I'm not so sure. Winning would mean a lot of different things, things that I don't think I can handle."
"Like what?" I ask, surprised she's even considering the fact of not trying.
"It took a while but a few weeks before this all started, I began to love myself again. All my self love had been stolen by a man I thought I loved and I had slowly started to regain it. If I win, I don't know if I ever can regain it."
"And why not?"
She sighs heavily. "To get out of here, I'd have to lose you. I don't know if I can do that."
I stay silent for a moment. What do I say? My heart longs for me to accept her feelings and give my own back to her but my mind is telling me to deny them and focus on The Games. My heart has always been my main strength, though, my mother had always told me that as I had grown up caring for her.
"I don't know if I can either." I finally admit and she squeezes my hand.
"If I die then you must keep trying, Vinicio. I need to know that you would keep trying."
"Only if you do the same." I reply.
"Okay." She hesitates. "I promise that if you die, I will do whatever I can to win."
"I promise too."
We sit in silence, hand in hand, as we watch the faces appear in the sky.
A/N: Goddamn that Career alliance is so dysfunctional! Both these deaths I feel may be slightly controversial so I'm nervous but excited to see people's reactions to them. Anyway, here's Day 3!
Alliances
Lira, Eric and Daniel
Tenzin, Gena and Cyra
Vinicio, Carina, Emerald and Charity
Silver and Kathryn
THE FALLEN:
15th Place - Xavier Ivuluh (D3M). Stabbed in the chest by Andromeda Knox (D2F). Submitted by FizznBoo.
Ah, Xavier I'm sorry. I know I set you up as the Foxface of the story in the last chapter but that was really just a way to make your death slightly more shocking. You were a simple and funny boy from District 3 with a sad backstory and you had some great intelligence to you. Sadly, I had been setting up your death next to Andromeda's since the Training Day chapter as I never felt like I could find any other arc or storyline to give you. RIP.
14th Place - Andromeda Knox (D2F). Throat slit by Silver Rafferty (D1M). Submitted by Annabeth777.
Neb, you killed off another career?! Ugh I'm so sorry, Andromeda was such a fun character and I loved writing her. There were times where I saw her as a Victor or at least a contender but, truly, I think this was the best place to end her story. She realised what a monster she had become through killing someone she had befriended a few days ago and a switch had flicked in her head. I could've had her go full psychopath mode but I think ending her here does her a lot of justice. RIP.
KILL COUNT:
Silver - 3
Andromeda - 2
Eric - 1
Kathryn - 1
Lira - 1
Charity - 1
Vinicio - 1