Bess Carver (17) D10F
The fight was over. I couldn't believe it. The Careers had tried to kill us and failed. Sure, there were two left, but there was a beauty in knowing that we could manage to win. Despite it all, we could stand a chance against Nailah and Allure. I wasn't totally hopeful. I didn't want to let myself be crushed, and I wasn't looking forward to fighting Culter if we did pull it off. But after such a crazy Games, I finally felt like I could actually have a chance to go home. Even if I'd be going home alone, with only the memories of the woman I could have loved so much.
The fight wasn't over. I had dropped my guard and Culter was yelling and there was another mutt. It could have reached me. It would have been such a quick death. I wouldn't have known what hit me. But Culter caught my attention in time that I raised my axe and the mutt just growled at me, stuck between me and my ally. Before I knew it, I growled back. The standoff lasted for second after agonizing second while I considered my odds, considered that Culter would be fine if the mutt got him but I didn't have fancy body armor, and then the dog left.
"It's done?" I tried to announce the end of the tension but it came out as a question. Was it really done? Did we have time to breathe before the Careers would be after us again? Did we have time to grab Oberon's knives and Dionysus's sword and get ready for one last stand? We stood in silence for a bit longer, making sure nothing else was coming our way. The bird mutts had cleared out, probably spooked off by the dogs and the fighting. There was nothing around us as far as the eye could see. We had time to breathe, which meant we had time to process.
"I killed him," Culter said in what sounded like disbelief. It was an impossible sentence. He took down a Career. He strangled a man to death. I tried not to think of what it must have felt like. Despite my best efforts, the twitching and struggling filled my mind. At least I had been able to kill Dionysus mostly from afar, with just a second of physical contact. Culter didn't have that privilege.
"He had it coming," I replied, my voice surprisingly hard. He did. Anthony and Dionysus volunteered for this whole mess. They looked forward to it while we sobbed and begged and prayed it wouldn't happen to us. "For Kjole." I didn't list everyone they had killed, but I didn't have to. Kjole was our mascot even though I never knew her. Dionysus died for her as much as Anthony did.
Nailah Nebit (18) D2F
Which of us will win? I guess that's up to the Gamemakers. The conversation replayed itself in my mind over and over again while Allure and I sat by each other, watching the sun rise. The faces in the sky confirmed our greatest hopes, that it was just us and two outliers left in the Arena. It was our Games to lose, and soon it would come down to which of us was more willing to kill. And despite what I had said in our conversation, I had good hopes that that was me. She didn't want to kill me after we had gotten so close. And I didn't want to kill her, but I seemed much more willing to.
After all, she'd already downed half of her water bottle.
I had to use every piece of advice my mentors had every given me, every tip Allure had gifted me. Every time Allure looked at me I could feel the guilt washing across my face, but the way she smiled at me and stayed leaning on me, absentmindedly playing with my hair while we waited for the outliers to run out of supplies, I knew she had no idea. The poison wouldn't have really gotten to her yet; she might feel a little ill, but she wouldn't know it was poison instead of just weird food or excitement. It would act slowly, hopefully killing her after the confrontation with the outliers. Or during, weakening her so much she lost to them. Either way, she was my biggest competitor, and I did what I had to do.
A bright fanfare came from the sky, Ginger smiling down at us with what looked like an actual smile. She was wearing a fancy outfit, something pretty and nicer than even the Capitol normally wore. I didn't have time to guess what the announcement was before the words were pouring out of her mouth.
"Good morning, citizens of Panem. It is with great pleasure that I announce to my grand nation that I am engaged. In celebration of this grand event, I'd like to extend the merriment to the tributes in the Games. In honor of the binding of two people into one, I'll broaden the gesture even further - from two people's joy comes three; as three tributes may leave the Arena. Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor."
Are you freaking kidding me?
Culter Spring (17) D11M
One of us is going to live. We had no guarantee that both of us would win, though we finally had a chance. If we both attacked the same Career, if we separated her from the other, we could take her down. We didn't have to kill two Careers and each other. We just had to team up against one Career while the Careers would almost certainly be teaming up against us. It wasn't a great chance. We didn't have anything near good odds. But it was something. I had to grab onto that opportunity with both hands.
"We can win," Bess said, her voice full of shock. And she was right. Every odd was still against, with the Careers having a whole Cornucopia of supplies and all the food they could want, but we could win. We'd have to choose the right time to attack. They certainly wouldn't be coming for us; they had the perfect fort and wouldn't run out of supplies anytime soon. It would be up to us to choose the perfect time and perfect means of attack to snag just one kill before the Games ended. We had enough water to buy time to plan, but we could use more food. Or else we'd only have a couple of days before we'd be sitting ducks.
And then the tables turned. Like a miracle, a sonata started above us, music serenading us while we waited for the parachute to be low enough that we could reach it. It was big enough that we knew it was a real prize, a gamechanger. And it was. The sponsor gift with a 10 and an 11 engraved on it, a gift from pooled sponsors, was warm in my hands. We opened it and found a genuine warm pizza, four packaged meals, and a small compartment that had still-cold ice cream. It was a feast I would never have dreamed of back in Eleven, better food that my parents could ever afford.
"These are MREs," Bess said, holding one of the big pre-packaged meals. "They'd give these to us sometimes if we had an extra long shift or a particularly good work week. Enough to feed a family of three for a day. Well, a starving family, but... they'll last forever in here." Between us, we had enough food to last at least days. We could make a really good plan and really figure out the Games. We could pull it off.
"We should really plan," I admitted, holding one of the bowls of ice cream out to Bess. "But we have time. Why don't we just eat for now?"
With her ice cream in her hands, the only cold thing we'd seen in days, Bess nodded.
And with that we have no deaths for a chapter! Which is unusual at this point in the Games. We do have Allure not doing so hot though.
In case anyone is wondering, I've been planning on letting two people win for a while. Then I went "Why not all four?" and settled on the Solomon solution: Cut the extra two in half. One more death and the tributes can finally wipe off the very caked-on sand.
