Sorry for the late chapter, University, and everything. Only two more training chapters after this and we are done with training. After that, we have The Capitol Party, two character-building chapters, elimination, the morning of/tubes/countdown and then bloodbath! I hope to be there by Christmas.
Also, because of me, you did not get the Halloween one shot so it is now a Christmas one-shot. We may in the Games but yay for happy throwbacks. The results of the poll are up on my profile.
Also, the tribute list for Realism is up. I am sorry if your tribute did not get in, it was hard to make a choice.
I hope you enjoy.
Maurice Powers, District One Male.
Maurice cocked his head as he looked at the slow-burning fire in front of him and Ares. The flames ate away at the bed of dry leaves and twigs, pummeling a fine, white smoke into the air. He watched with his blue eyes as it came into the contact with the stone roof, splitting and moving along the surface until it reached open air and vanished.
The curly haired boy frowned. "I don't think it is a good idea to burn a fire," he muttered, Ares sharpening a knife next to him. The dark skinned boy shrugged, his brown eyes flickering over to their heat source.
"We only need it to cook the meat and heat us up, I will put it out before nightfall." Maurice looked at the dead rabbitts the pair had caught by Ares' feet, ready to be skinned and gutted.
"Hm, but people can still see the smoke-"
"Then we will be ready for them," Ares cut in, taking his sharpened knife and picking up one of the rabbits. Maurice did not push further. Seeing it best to allow his partner to continue his cooking and pay more attention to how he was to win.
As he leaned back against the stone wall, kicking up a small amount of stagnant water from under the bridge, he found himself entranced by the evening sky. The mixture of warm, fire like colours making it hard to tell where the warm glow around him came from.
The sky had amazed Maurice since he had started the Game. Being in The Capitol allowed him to earn insider knowledge, like that the Arena was a large dome type structure. However, this was real. Everything was set up to mimic the Games but the sky and part of himself, the part he hid from people felt slightly emotional about that.
Maurice felt fear, even if that was not the way of a Warrior but how could he not? He and Ares had been trained in hunting all their life. They could track down a rabbit and in snear a fellow Warrior but it did not offer much else. Their survival skills were not as sharpened as Damon or Cautille nor were their weapon skills as polished as Nero and Berik. In short, their skill set was almost useless, unless they happened to be placed in an Arena that allowed that was filled with fast pray and no other food source.
So, the lanky man felt his fear was justified, even if it had not taken complete control of him in the current moment. For now, he knew it was just a Game, children running about and knocking each other out of the running like some twisted game of laser tag. However, in a few weeks, a knife to the chest would no longer result in the flashing of a suit and the embarrassment of losing. His punishment would be a quick death if he was lucky, a painful one, even with that knowledge. No man was truly alive if the thought did not plague his sleep and eat away at him from the inside.
"Maurice," Ares grumbled as he pulled out the innards of the grey rabbit. "Could you grab us some mint...I saw so, me on the bank by the reeds." Maurice narrowed his eyes at the boy, shifting awkwardly. Ares frowned at the boy's reaction, carelessly throwing the bloody mass of guts into the water by his feet. "Really? After seven years of working with me, I'm the one young don't trust?"
Maurice moved his hand to the knife on his belt. "Only one of us can win...maybe you just want my back turned."
Ares rolled his eyes in response. "Or, I might just want some mint with my rabbit so if you are going to kill me, do it otherwise, go get me my fucking mint!" Ares' nostrils inflamed as he said this, leading Maurice to give an apologetic nod and rise to his feet.
Ares watched with a wary eye as his partner sauntered off and vanished out of view and up the bank.
Once out of site, Maurice dropped to his knees, allowing the silent tears to roll down his face. A day ago, Ares was his friend, laughing over a silly, underaged cartoon white raising his blood sugar. Now, he was on the verge of snapping and Maurice did not want to fall asleep next to man in case Ares decided to take out the competition. The dark haired boy had always wondered how they would make them all kill each other and it seemed he had his answer. Fear and the greed to win. Three people had already died, the thirst for victory was strong and when Maurice thought about it, none of them knew what prize they were fighting for. Sponsors may have been watching but the children were fighting for more, they were fighting just to say they had won.
Maurice arched his back forward as he tried to catch his breath, the footsteps of a worried Ares drawing closer. The boy sat up, quickly drying his tears as he grabbed a cluster of Mint. However, as he turned, he was met with the fierce face of Janae, slamming a dagger into his suit.
Evelyn Spires, District Two Female.
Evelyn watched from the bushes as Maurice's suit flickered red before the boy fell to the ground with a thud. Like instructed, Janae turned to run back into the bushes from which she emerged from, trying not to drag her leg behind her. However, just as she was about to dive back into the reeds, a flash of silver spun through the air, striking the small girl in the back. The young girl's suit flashed red, using the last second of control she had over her body to throw herself back onto the riverbank.
Evelyn grunted, happy so see a strong competitor go but a capable ally nonetheless. She had hoped Berik would take her partner out, allowing him one shot on the girl but when he missed, it was her turn to take him out. Evelyn was just slightly relieved she was gone. It sounded cruel but she knew Janae better than anyone. A girl who the other Warrior's assumed was gentle and kid yet in the ring, she was stronger than forty percent of them.
The second silver lining to her partner's demise was that Evelyn now could run out like her knight in shining armor, gaining her trust and the support of sponsors. So she did just that.
Like a well-oiled machine, Evelyn burst free from her hiding place and threw a knife at Ares, missing my millimeters and scraping against the stone wall. Ares shrieked as the knife hit just by his ear, his eyes merely resting on Evelyn before he turned and ran away.
The dark haired girl gave a defeated sigh as she ran after the Warrior, quickly catching up with him and getting him in the line of fire. She knew Ares should have zigzagged and the boy realized that too, just as one of Evelyn's knife struck him in the back.
Marzio Ottone, District Three Male.
When Annabella's face was shown that knight, Marzio held her backpack tighter. A pang of guilt rushing through the boy. He had picked up her pack, assuming that with them both being from the same Warrior pair, they would have the same things in their packs. However, Marzio was starting to doubt himself. What if he was the reason she died. Not that she could have made anything quick enough to defend herself anyway.
It held nothing more than a few wires and a transformer. Easily made into a weapon but not in the time Annabella had. This meant it was down to Marzio to bring home the bacon or in this case, the sponsors. It was not easy.
Sure, electrical engineering seemed like an amazing skill to pursue when he was a child but now it came down to the Games, it was useless. He could kill but only if he had the means to do so and the parts he had in front of him did not offer such help.
He had looked it over a thousand times, it was a one-use weapon at best and could offer nothing more than a jolting shock. However, as Marzio laid there, the low electrical hum of his suit faint in the night, he had an idea.
Who said he needed to kill the person in the suit? And maybe, just maybe, he could knock out more than one Warrior.
Clarissa Silvia, District Eleven Female.
Clarissa and Loretta sat back to back, their weapons held tightly yet their eyes heavy with sleep. Both just wanted to collapse. They should have taken it in turns but neither could admit that they lacked trust for the other. It seemed childish but neither girl were friends, per say and after all, there was only one victor.
The darkness did not help, their vision impaired and every rustled and movement the arena made making their heart beat increase. Yet, by the early morning, Loretta could hardly keep her eyes open.
She looked off into the darkness of the world, her body rocking and her eyelids shaking, becoming weaker by the second. Her blue eyes focused on a large, old tree in front of her, more of the finer details appearing as they focused.
She was not sure how long the figure had been there or why it took so long to react but by the time she shook herself awake, a blacked out figure. Barely visible stood by the tree. It cocked its head to the side, moving forward slightly, the moonlight shimmering on their black surface of their suit.
Loretta yelped as he jumped to her feet, knocking Clarissa on the shoulder but the dark haired girl failed to wake up until her body hit the ground. Loretta scrambled for the knife in her pack, only to be kicked back to the ground by another blacked out figure.
The second figure got ready to smash their foot into Loretta's skull when Clarissa threw a torch at them, their suit flashing white and the silver seven on their chest.
"Balina," Clarissa managed to utter before the girl smashed the handle of her knife onto her head. Clarissa's suit shimmered white as she backed away in the darkness but Balina followed suit, striking the girl in the chest as she tried to stand up. Any other day, Clarissa could have tackled Belina to the floor but with every hit, her suit made her weaker, hindering her useless.
A shriek caught drew both of the girl's attention towards Loretta who struggled in the arms of Shelly, the girl's helmet off as she jabbed her dagger into the girl's stomach over and over again. Seconds later, the girl's suit flashed red and Loretta fell to the floor lifeless.
Belina looked over to Clarissa who was panting on the floor, the suit making her limbs heavy. "You bitch!" she screamed, using the last of her strengths to leap at the girl, just as Shelly slammed her dagger into Clarissa's back.
21st-Maurice Powers-District One
20th-Janae Rayon-District Nine
19th-Ares Walker-District Eight
18th-Loretta Moriko-District Six
17th-Clarissa Silvia-District Eleven.