Chapter 39:

Night Five

Elias Pilkvist, 17, District Six

Elias just wants to be back home. He has never been this alone before for so long… Even when he was abandoned by his parents, it was only a few hours until Cecy found him and helped him. When he was taken from her and sent to the Capitol, he always had someone else around from District Six. But the mentors are safe in the Capitol. And Genesis is gone…

He has no one. Just himself. And he does not like who he is. That is the worst part of being alone is being left to his thoughts and forced to admit he has become the person he has tried not to be… No, not person…the monster his parents wanted him to be. He has become exactly who they wanted him to be for years, followed the training he spent years trying to undo with Cecy. But did he really try to stop it? He kept fighting after his family abandoned him because he enjoyed fighting. He did not like hurting people, but he enjoyed the control he had over his body, making choices in the fight for himself alone. And most of all, he enjoyed seeing the joy on Cecy's face whenever he would bring home a big sum of money from a win and know that it was more money than she ever had before.

That was why he fought…for Cecy…not because he is a monster…right?

Then what reason does he have for fighting in the arena? For killing someone?

Elias curls up on himself, overwhelmed by the feeling of guilt in him over killing just one person and knowing that there is no way out of the arena without killing someone else… He does not know if he can live with the guilt of killing anyone else. He can fight, but actually killing someone? That he does not think he can do even if it is the one thing he must do to stay alive. And yet…one of his favorite things is seeing Cecy happy and he knows she would be so happy seeing him win and the life they could have with him as a victor. Can he kill for her happiness? He has had so much emotional pain over his life. What is a bit more if he brings happiness for Cecy?

Elias lets out a long sigh, not knowing what he should do. He knows what he wants to do. He wants to not kill anymore. But is that what he should do? He does not know the answer for that.

Yet he is forced to have an answer to that very soon.

The door slams open and startles Elias, making him jump at the sound as he tries to get to his feet, only to slip and fall over towards one of the lions in the room. It nips at his hand and Elias pulls back his hand, holding it to his chest to keep it safe as he watches Demarcus freeze in the doorway. The career is tense as he stares around, not focusing on Elias as he stays still against the wall, hoping he will not be forced to fight because he does not know what to do.

"Hello?" Demarcus calls out to the room, taking a step back when he hears one of the lions start growling. He swallows and clears his throat, still looking around and Elias notices that he only has a single knife and a bag on his shoulder. Blood drips down the side of his face from a different wound than the one that is already bandaged. "I heard someone…who's there?"

As his heart races, Elias uses the wall to push himself into a standing position and braces his prostheses in a fighting stance and starts to raise his fists. But he looks at Demarcus, badly beaten and using the door to keep himself standing, before looking down at his hands and soon lowers them, ashamed at himself. He cannot start a fight with someone who is already injured like that. He will only start a fair fight…but if Demarcus fights first, he will defend himself. He will at least do that, but nothing more.

"It is Elias," he says to the career, watching Demarcus try to stand up more at the knowledge of it being him in the room, and Elias hates it. He hates that the others think he is some terrible fighting monster, a threat to them, when it is the last thing he wants. Elias presses himself up at the wall and shakes his head at the career, "I do not want to kill you. I…I killed Arthur and I do not like this feeling…"

"Arthur?" Demarcus asks in confusion and his shoulders relax, but the rest of his body stays tense. "I killed him…he was badly injured when we found him, at least that's what Bell said…"

"I did not kill…" Elias says slowly, struggling to process this. "But I fought him and then there was a cannon. How could I have not killed him?"

Demarcus shakes his head as he lowers his hand, but keeps the knife in it. "We heard the noise and found Arthur." Elias does not know how to react to this information and his eyes begin to gloss over with tears and he cannot hold back a sob. "Are you…" Demarcus asks in confusion as he takes a step into the room, still holding onto the doorknob for support. "Why are you crying?"

Elias cannot hold back tears at this and he slides down the wall, back to the spot where he was curled up. For three days he has thought that he killed someone. Lived with the guilt and struggled to decide what to do. And now…now he knows that he was not the monster that he believed he was. "Thank you."

"Thank…you?" Demarcus repeats as he starts to waver in the spot where he stands before falling to the ground, startling Elias once more. The career groans in pain as he rolls over onto his side and looks in Elias' direction. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"No," Elias answers without hesitation, knowing now more than ever that he cannot do that. Not when Demarcus is not attacking him at all. "You are not threatening me so I will not fight you."

"I don't understand," Demarcus says as he tries to push himself up to a seated position, his hands shaking as he struggles for a few seconds. The action requires all of his focus and once sitting, he puts a hand gently to his injured head. "You have an injured and blind career in front of you… You scored so high. Why haven't you killed me?"

Elias stares at the injured career, feeling…like he can do something different this time compared to when he last ran into someone injured and blind. He had been so startled when he found Arthur that he hurt him without wanting to, acting on years of trained instincts. But now…now he can make the choice for himself. "You are hurt. I would rather help you than hurt you more."

Demarcus stares in Elias' direction for a few long seconds, his face unreadable to Elias until his eyes begin to water. He turns his face towards the ground, not looking at Elias for a while as his shoulders shake. "I don't know why you are doing this. But I…I could really use some help." Demarcus lets out a sigh at this and starts to shake his head, but soon stops and groans in pain at the action. "I think I have a concussion. The others…I don't know what happened. I woke up injured and with them all gone… I don't even know who is still alive."

"Anastacia, Odyssey, and Delta," Elias says slowly, watching Demarcus look back up at him and seeming upset by the answer, before sighing once more. Elias studies the injured career, not sure where to even start. He is so used to hurting people from fighting, not healing them after fights. "What should I do to help? I do not have anything."

"You have nothing?" Demarcus asks, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "No food or water? How have you survived?"

Elias points over at where the lions are gathered in the corner, silently watching everything happening. "The lions have water and food. I have eaten some of the raw meat."

"Lions?" Demarcus asks as he starts searching the room, fear on his face. "Why are we in a room with lions?"

"They are good," Elias says with a frown at Demarcus picking up his knife once more. "They will not hurt us."

"Us…" Demarcus repeats, looking back over at Elias.

"Yes, us," Elias tells Demarcus before realizing that maybe the career does not want to be around him. He would understand why…Elias still is not sure that he is not a monster. But he asked Elias for help. Why would he do that if he did not want to work together? "Is that not why you asked for help?"

"I…" Demarcus answers with hesitation in his voice. He looks away from Elias for a while, staring off at the wall for a minute before turning back to Elias. "I don't want to be alone in this arena. You…you can fight, right? You scored high in training."

"I did score high," Elias confirms first, trying to decide how to answer the other question. "I do know how to fight, but I do it for money for Cecy, not because I like it."

"I do that for my family too…" Demarcus' shoulders hunch over at this and he again turns away from Elias and uses his arms to wipe away at tears. He gently shrugs the bag off his shoulder and pushes it towards Elias. "I have first aid in there. I think…I just need the wound clean. And…help yourself to any food in there. They're our supplies now."

Davy Emmerich, 14, District Five

Davy could no longer deny his odds of winning. He's only fourteen, the youngest one left out of the final eight, all the others either seventeen or eighteen. Four of the others left are careers. Yet it's those reasons that a small bubble of hope is starting to form deep down in him, fighting the looming sense of doom that has been in him since he first heard his name called out at the Reaping. Yes, he might be the youngest left, but to reach the final eight at his age says something. He's outlived two careers and several others that were older than him. And Clark won last year at thirteen, a year younger than Davy. He's had support from the Capitol, somehow, even if he doesn't fully understand that since he's not that impressive compared to a career or even one of the other older non-careers. But Davy can't deny that someone is looking out for him from the sponsor gifts he's gotten, or that that the Gamemakers for some reason have been favoring him over others.

And…as much as just thinking about the metallic smell of blood nearly makes him lose the small content of his stomach…Davy did make a kill… That has to say something about his odds of winning. The Hunger Games aren't won without making kills…surely he'll make more if he's to get out of here.

And he really does want to get out of here. With the bit of hope brings images of what his future could be. He could be happy with Leandro, not needing to hide such a big part of himself to his family. He could go to university and study what he wants, not what his father wants. Maybe he might even make his father proud of him if he wins… But if not, does that really matter if he has Leandro by his side? A little bit…but not as much as before going into this nightmare.

Yet he still has so far to go before getting back home to Five. It's only the final eight… They must have been interviewing their families and friends today. Davy smiles to himself as he leans back against the wall, picturing what his family must have been like, but the image soon makes his eyes begin to water as he realizes just how much he misses them. Despite always feeling left out and not good enough for his father, he knows his family still cares about him, especially his mother. He wishes he could have one of her hugs right now, even if he's getting too old to need comfort from his mother like that.

Davy tries to rub his eyes discretely before any tears can fall, knowing he needs to keep showing the Capitol that he's being brave. Showing Leandro that he's brave… He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the note from him, running his hand over the letters. Yes…he's okay. He has to keep staying okay for Leandro. He doesn't even want to think about Leandro watching anything happen to him…so he has to do his best to not let that happen.

But he really hasn't done much in this arena. He could have done so much more to try and get out of here. He's barely left this room – he wouldn't really count sticking his head out the door before running back in at the sight of Sky as leaving… He's just been counting on sponsor gifts and the Gamemakers being happy with him and leaving him alone to focus on the other tributes.

Yet…they're running out of other tributes to focus on instead. Whether Davy likes it or not…the Gamemakers will bring their attention to him sooner or later. And he doesn't know if it will be in his favor or not anymore…

Davy glances down at one of the two knives sitting next to him, knowing what needs to be done with it, but dreading the moment he has to fight again. He can still feel the sting in his shoulder from the cut he got from Sky and the aches from his body getting shoved around. He doesn't want to feel any more pain…

But he needs to get out of this arena alive.

Davy needs to do something to keep the audience – and more importantly, the Gamemakers – liking him. Do something on his terms, not because the Gamemakers pushed him to kill. And maybe…maybe he just won't run into anyone yet, or if he does, it won't be a career. Or the tribute won't want to fight him. Davy shakes his head at that thought, knowing it won't be true. Tributes don't make it to the final eight without being willing to fight.

Davy takes a deep breath as he gathers up the small bit of bread remaining and tucks it in one of his pockets before picking up both knives and standing up on shaky legs. The knives feel awkward and heavy in his hands, letting a bit of doubt dampen the hope building in him. He can pretend all he wants that he knows what he's doing with the knives, but he doesn't… But neither do half of the tributes remaining. And at least he has a weapon. That might be more than some of the others.

He focuses on the hope instead of the doubt, trying to keep motivated to actually do something as he heads towards the door. He stops in front of it, turning to look back at the wolves and finding his favorite looking at him with sad eyes. Even though he knows they're mutts from the Gamemakers…Davy likes the wolves and he's going to miss them. "Thank you for everything," he whispers to them – at least, he thinks he's whispering, but his hearing device says otherwise. "But…I need to go now."

The wolf gives him a look of understanding and even nods her head at him before laying back down, and Davy turns to face the door. He takes a deep breath, knowing there's no going back now. But he was always going to reach this point if he wanted to win. And he does. He's terrified at the thought of dying.

And so he reaches out with a shaky hand for the doorknob and… Davy scrunches his face in confusion as he tries the doorknob again, only confirming that it's firmly locked. He steps back from the door, staring all over at it and assessing what is going on. He nervously glances back at the wolves, worried that it's a trap by the Gamemakers, but they're all still exactly in the same spot and not paying him much attention.

So why won't they let him leave this room when he finally had the courage to leave?

Davy sighs as he leans against the door and slides down to the ground. "I guess I'm not leaving…" he says softly to himself, staring across the room. But as he does, he starts to study the hatch that has opened for the wolves twice and allowed them to leave for a short time before returning. He hadn't paid much attention to it, not wanting to leave the safety of this room. But now… Where does it go? It must be somewhere in the arena…and would they let him use that passage?

What's the worst that will happen if he tries and they don't want him to? They'll just keep it locked, just like the door. At least he could say he tried everything to leave the room.

Before his resolve can slip away, Davy stands back up and heads to the hatch. He slowly feels around it and steps back in fear when it slides open in front of him. He peers inside to the dark tunnel sloping up before looking back at the wolves, seeing if any of them are going to stop him from going in it. But they haven't moved and one even glances at the hatch, seemingly encouraging him to go through it.

Davy takes a deep breath before climbing into the tunnel, it big enough that he only has to crouch a little while standing. On the rough cement floor are metal rungs every few feet to help the climb up and so Davy adjusts his hold on his knives before crouching down, using the rungs to help him climb so he doesn't slip and injure himself.

The climb is slow the first few feet as he loses the light coming from the room and he eventually reaches a flat portion and feels around, finding a small platform before the tunnel continues sloping up in a different direction. But as he turns, his hearing device goes off once and Davy glances back, finding the hatch shut once more.

A shiver of fear goes through him, knowing that there's no going back now… And he's terrified of what he might be facing on the other side of this tunnel. He tries to think through the orientation of his room in the arena, but can't remember much of his initial run into the room, too terrified to pay attention to his surroundings. But if he's going up…there's not much else he could be heading for.

Davy wanted to do something to prove he is willing to fight to win, but now he's wondering if he took too big of a gamble… A gamble he is being forced to see through. He can only hope the careers won't notice him…

Davy forces himself to continue climbing up the tunnel, knowing he has to keep climbing and starting to grow more afraid of the darkness with each passing minute. As he gets further up the tunnel, he can see a small crack of light coming through, bringing him comfort and fear.

When he reaches the crack of light, Davy feels around, finding what seems to be a trap door covering the end of the tunnel. He pushes it a small fraction and stops when some sand starts to fall through the cracks. This is worse than he imagined…he didn't just head up to the above ground part of the arena. He went straight into the careers camp.

Davy sits down in the tunnel, trying to control his increasing breathing as panic starts to build in him. What does he do? He can't go back now. But how can he get away from four careers? He can't…he just walked right into a death trap, all because he allowed himself to start getting a bit of hope. Yet he can't stay here. Davy will have to leave the tunnel and try to slip away from the careers unnoticed…

That won't happen.

Tears start to well in his eyes as he fears his approaching death. He doesn't want to die. He wants to live… Why would the Gamemakers send him here? He was doing something! …But he hadn't been doing much otherwise… This is his fault. And now he has to face the consequences.

Davy takes a deep breath as he reaches up with a shaky hand and slowly starts pushing on the trap door again, doing his best to open it very slowly to not draw attention to himself. But he soon finds there's only a little bit of give upwards and he slips his fingers in the small crack of light showing and begins sliding it back. It only stops a tiny bit of fear in him knowing they at least won't see the trap door being raised.

He opens it just enough to peek his head through and waits a minute, watching the device on his wrist for any sort of sound that might indicate that the careers have noticed him. But the device gives no indication and as Davy's legs begin to cramp, he slowly lifts his head out, just enough to see over the top of the trap door, and frantically looks around, almost certain that a knife will be heading into his head.

But there's no one. Not even a fire going in front of the cornucopia. Davy scrunches his face in confusion, having been almost certain that the careers would still be here with four of them remaining.

Davy stars pushing the door open more to slide his body out more, but stops when his device starts buzzing against his arm a bunch and he slips back down into the tunnel. He quickly closes the trap door and waits for an attack that never comes, watching the device until the buzzing stops, leaving silence in the arena outside the trap door. Silence until one quick buzz from a cannon.

Anastacia Astoria, 18, District One

It hasn't been long since Delta finally stopped her angry pacing and accepted that until the Gamemakers want them to, they won't be allowed to go to the lower level of the arena. She didn't want to listen to Anastacia's logic that they should take the day to rest up and prepare for tomorrow's Trial by Combat in case one of them was put in it. It took a few hours for her to sit still, then even longer to actually go to sleep. Anastacia didn't mind the forced rest the Gamemakers were giving them after so many days of being on edge. That edge is still there, of course, but dulled by the knowledge that the Gamemakers don't want any deaths right now. Not while they interview everyone.

Maybe it was the interviews themselves that set Delta on edge. She had been pretty fine before then – so quiet for a while that Anastacia was almost certain that she had left her. She doesn't know much about Delta's home life – and doesn't want to get to know her more, not when ultimately Delta has to die for her to win. But she understands if she has a rough life or strained relationship with her mother. She'd be lying if things weren't tense ever since her parents' rebel involvement was revealed to her, even more so after they couldn't stop her from her decision to volunteer. At least Anastacia knows they value their lives too much to say anything outright that would bring the Capitol down on her head unfairly. She also understands what it's like to lose someone she cares deeply about, just like Delta with her father…

Stop it, Anastacia. Do not start sympathizing with Delta. She is one of seven others that must die for Anastacia to get back home to One and to accomplish the goals she set out on years ago after Pad's death.

Anastacia angrily punches the pillow behind her, trying to get more comfortable as she leans against the cold stone pillow. Maybe she shouldn't have taken watch – even though it's hardly watching for her. She was just tired of Delta's pacing and knew she would never sleep with her like that. But now she doesn't like all this free time to think. She shouldn't be thinking about her ally this much, at least not this way. She needs to keep reminding herself that it's herself or Delta. She needs to focus on her goals. Win the Games. Help get abused people out of bad homes. Adopt a cute cat or two.

And be alone.

Anastacia groans at her brain's wayward thoughts, shaking her head at herself. She can't be thinking these things. So what if she's alone? She's spent years being alone, ever since she was thirteen. She can deal with being alone if she knows she's helping other kids like Pad not end up like how they did. There's no possibility of more than one of them getting out of this arena alive and the sooner her dumb brain wraps itself around that concept, the easier it will be getting through these last seven tributes, including Delta.

As long as she neglects the fact that Delta has both her sight and hearing while Anastacia only has partial hearing. And denies the fact that she hasn't done that well so far with killing and doing things on her own. She's gotten injured in the few fights she's had and she only killed Major with the help of Delta and Odyssey, and that didn't even go fully to plan for the three of them – sorry Odyssey, her bad – but better him than her. He at least still has his sight and hearing.

Can she even get through the seven remaining tributes like this?

Anastacia sighs at the thought and turns her head up to what she assumes is the open night sky. She's starting to realize just how difficult this next part of the Games is going to be. She always knew it would be difficult with the Quell twist, but had kind of just been hoping she'd lose an easier sense and coast through like Delta and Odyssey have been doing. But…she's been through hell before and the biggest loss of her life and survived that. If she can survive losing her best friend at only thirteen – and even come out stronger – she has to figure out some way to get through this. She'll bleed and fight tooth and nail to get out of this arena alive.

But so are her former allies and Delta.

Maybe she'll be lucky and Delta will be put in another Trial by Combat and somehow get killed. Make things a little easier for her.

Anastacia rubs her good ear, wondering if she's starting to lose it when she hears a faint beeping sound. She doesn't want to wake Delta up for nothing in case it's just her brain imagining things, but the beeping gets louder, making there be no doubt in Anastacia's mind that it's real. She lightly kicks over at Delta, getting a groan when her foot connects with her head and she mutters an apology as rustling indicates that Delta is sitting up. "Wha- oh."

"Oh what?" Anastacia asks as there's a soft thud between them that has Anastacia reaching for a knife and then the beeping stops.

"It's a gift for you," Delta says as Anastacia hears it get settled right in front of her. "Only a '1' on the side of it."

"Oh," Anastacia says quietly, a bit of shock making its way into her voice. She didn't really expect to receive any sponsor gifts and was fully prepared to make it through the Games on her own – part of her almost wanted to stubbornly win all on her own. But she's not going to turn down a gift that's right in front of her. Unless it's another hat, even if the hard hat she has is actually useful. She just could have used it sooner. "I wonder what it is," Anastacia mutters to herself as she puts her hands the canister in front of her, feeling around for the latch to open it up.

With a quiet little pop the lid opens up and Anastacia reaches inside, finding…nothing? She sits back, her face scrunching in confusion that only grows when a foul smell reaches her nose. "What the hell is this?"

"Fuck!" Delta yells and suddenly she is scrambling away, pushing the canister into Anastacia's lap and hitting her full force with the smell.

"Get it away from me!" Anastacia yells as she quickly pushes the canister away from her, but the smell lingers all around her as she tries to reach out for her supplies to grab before getting out of there. Her hands are heavy as she grabs her sword and tries to scramble to her feet, only to trip over them and sending her face first to the ground, unable to even put her arm out to stop herself.

"It's poison!" Delta yells before she starts coughing. She grabs onto Anastacia's arm and tries to start pulling her away, before dropping the heavy arm and Anastacia hears her footsteps running away from her.

"No…" Anastacia groans at Delta's retreating footsteps, her whole body feeling heavy as she becomes unable to move. Her chest feels like a weight is on it, making her struggle to keep breathing. No. She can't be dying. Not like this. Not with some bullshit trick from the Gamemakers making her think she has a sponsor gift when it was just poison.

Why? Why her? They wanted them to not do anything today! They can't be mad at her for not doing anything today!

Anastacia tries to move to push herself away from the poison surrounding her, but she can't move at all. Fuck, she doesn't want to die like this, suffocating from her lungs no longer being able to take in any air from her muscles shutting down.

Boom.

Anastacia freezes up – well, more than she already is from the damn poison, as confusion, and more importantly, air and blood, courses through her. What…the fuck? Why did the cannon go off before she's dead? As she lays there, unable to move as her mind races, fully alert still, she realizes that she's still able to bring in just enough air to her lungs and her immobility isn't getting any worse.

New fear fills her as she feels air from a hovercraft blowing down on her and then the metal claws wrapping around her, taking her up into the air and being completely unable to stop it. No, this shouldn't be happening. She shouldn't be taken out of the arena when she's still alive. What is happening?!

Anastacia tries to fight through the paralysis holding her body still as she's taken into the hovercraft and a bag is put over her head. "Tha- won't-" She can barely get out any words, her tongue thick and heavy in her mouth, unable to tell whoever it is that putting a bag over her head does nothing when she is blind.

"Quiet!" A harsh voice says in her ear and Anastacia tries to fight more but her body refuses to move from the poison, before she cries out at a sharp sting in her arm. "Tracker is down. Let's get her to Seven."

A chill runs down Anastacia's spine as the hovercraft starts moving with her pressed against the cold metal floor, unable to move and fight against the people that soon pick her up and start dragging her somewhere. All she can do is feel her mind and heart racing as she questions why they are taking her to Seven. Not the Capitol, not One, Seven. There's one reason that gets through her foggy brain and it sets a rage burning in her, rage that someone – or two people – have ruined her chances of winning the Games and possibly put her life at risk, all because they couldn't handle her making her own decision with the Games.

What the fuck did her parents do?!

I did warn everyone to buckle up last chapter lol. What is happening?! Obviously I'm not answering that question now lol. Answers will happen eventually, but I'm not revealing everything just now.

And now we're down to seven within the arena! As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter!

Updates might slow down a bit soon since my semester will be starting up again, but trust me, we'll get through these Games fast lol. I'm hyped to get to all the stuff I have planned so I will see you all soon!