Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
Celtic, to clear things up from last chapter, yes, Luciente's speaking about the girl from Six. She's not clear because she's rarely clear.
Hyperion had chosen to head to the simulator rooms while Luciente and Nathaniel were at the agility maze. The boy from One and the girl from Two were already there, apparently flirting and laying bets on who could last longest in one of the simulations. Hyperion stepped around them to frown at the control.
"Oh look," said the girl from Two. "Hoping there might be some more twelve year olds in there for you to beat on Ten?"
Hyperion grunted. She folded her arms across her chest and leant against the wall, kicking one leg up behind her. "So what did you do? Y'know, to get yourself…" She waved a hand at him. "Locked up."
"None of your business Two."
"Oh, but I was just curious." She leant forwards, angling herself towards him. One shoulder of her training shirt was slipping downwards and gaping out, giving a very clear view of what was underneath. "Listen. I saw you at the spear station yesterday. You looked pretty tough." Her gaze flicked over him and she licked her lips. "Still do."
He looked her up and down. Luciente hadn't given him her reading on this girl, but he could use his own.
"We could do with more people in our alliance." She shot a sneering look across the hall at the agility maze, where the boy from Four was with Luciente and Nathaniel. "We need men there, not simpering little boys." She pressed a hand to his chest, leaning in so close he could smell whatever Capitol sweetness she had washed her hair with. "What do you say?"
He clicked the button marked 'simulate.' "Fuck off Two."
She jerked back as though he'd smacked her and tossed her head, her ponytail bouncing with the motion. "Fine; be like that." A wicked smile twisted her lips. "Good luck to you and your sister in the bloodbath."
He took a step towards her. "If you so much as touch her-"
She held her hands up as several trainers along with two Peacekeepers began to move towards them. "Ah ah ah. We wouldn't want to cause a scene. Save it for the arena Ten." She glanced over at the agility maze again, where Luciente was now perched high atop one of the balance bridges, waiting impatiently for Nathaniel. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of time then. C'mon Damon."
Hyperion watched until they were back at the knives station and then clicked the button to enter the simulator.
The simulations appeared to be randomly generated, first shimmering and glowing around him to create a vast desert, and then a dusty forest, and then a crumbling city. At the start of each simulation he was delivered a pack, each time containing a few different supplies. Shadowy mutts stalked amongst the trees and slithered under the sand.
It was unnervingly realistic.
Luciente found him still there after two hours and joined him for next round, gazing around at the rocky mountains with her pale eyes. "This is wrong."
"It's a simulation."
"It's wrong."
He led her up into the mountains. The simulation must adjust for their movement, he figured, because the room was nowhere big enough for all the ground it felt like he'd covered. The simulation room was cold this time round, and they both shivered in their training clothes. The rocky mountainside seemed to shudder and ripple around them, streaks of electronic blue and white running through it. A mutt reared out of nowhere, a great white thing with four huge limbs and a head like a snake. It lunged towards them, looming, and then there was a dreadful crack and the simulation room cut to white.
There was a hiss as the door opened and the poofy blue haired trainer rushed in. "What did you do?"
Luciente stared at the spot in front of them where the mutt had been and scowled. "I don't like this place."
He followed her out.
"Bunny's suggested a truce for the bloodbath," Azrayk said, glancing back at where he'd just left the girls from Three, Nine, and Eleven at the foraging station.
"Which one's Bunny?" asked Shelley.
Azrayk rolled his eyes. "My District partner."
Luciente gazed over at the girls. The girl from Nine was tall and tanned, with brown hair twisted into a bun.
Shelley frowned. "What's in it for us?"
"Three less tributes trying to kill us at the cornucopia for a start."
"I'm down for that," said Nathaniel.
"I'll talk to her."
Shelley huffed and flicked a strand of brown hair from her eyes. "Maybe we should all talk to them. You know, so we know who we're meant to not be killing?"
Azrayk nodded. "Good idea."
They met with the three girls in a shadowed corner of the training centre. Around them, the grunts and rattles from the other tributes echoed around the hall. The girl from Three was a year younger than Luciente but a head shorter, thin and wiry, skin and bones. Dead girl walking, Luciente understood as she watched the silver knife slide across her chest.
"We've agreed we'll truce with you for the bloodbath," Azrayk said.
The girl from Eleven beamed, wide and genuine. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you!"
"No worries. So we won't attack you guys if you don't go for us."
The girl from Nine, Bunny, glanced at Hyperion. Unsure, untrusting. Luciente smiled, but that only seemed to make her shudder. Pussy.
"We would be willing to hold the truce until the end of the third day if you would."
"That wasn't being offered," Hyperion rumbled. If Luciente was to live (and she had to live, she had to) she had to die. If he had the chance, he'd break her neck himself. One less tribute in their path.
"I'm offering it now. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but having to kill people isn't exactly something I want to do."
She would make a poor coyote, Luciente thought. She didn't have it in her, unlike Nathaniel.
"Then that's your problem," Hyperion said.
She gaped at him. Azrayk stiffened and even Shelley looked a little startled. Only Nathaniel seemed unphased.
"If you're not in my way, I won't kill you at the bloodbath Nine. I make no other promises."
Later, she found him up on the roof. She always knew where to find him. It had been turned into a garden for some reason. It was too neat, really, too perfect, too pretty, to ever be real. She made her way around the flowers to find him sat on the edge of one of the flower beds, gazing out over the Capitol. He wasn't in a cell any longer, but he was still trapped, locked away in this new hell. She sat at his side, digging her fingers into the dirt, and watched as the sun went down.
