Since I usually give dying Tributes a short POV and seeing a short section might tip people off, I helpfully made ALL THE POVs SHORT so the rug could at any minute be ripped out.
Des Redwood
I just wanted it to be over. I was tired. My bones hurt like I was a hundred years old. I wanted to lie down and never give up. I wanted to see anything other than orange rock. I wanted t take a bath. I wanted something green.
Someone sent me a hatchet. Between that any my gloves, I was prepared as I'd ever be. Surely Careen had everything she needed. She'd be armed and well-fed. She probably had a tent and a soft air mattress. She was on a safari and I was the prize.
I stopped waiting and started looking for her too. Live or die, we wouldn't be in limbo anymore. I hoped we wouldn't pass each other by, but they must have some way to make sure that doesn't happen. The Games never lasted longer than a month. We were almost halfway there.
Careen Ellis
I didn't want to cry. Crying wasted water I didn't have. But it hurt so much. Every time I wanted to drink I had to open my mouth with my hand and cradle it as the nerves ground against each other. I'd bound it as best as I could with a strip of fabric, but I was no surgeon. I was wrecked. If Des hit my face, it would probably kill me. If she didn't, the pain would incapacitate me.
I pinched the skin on my arm and watched it slowly slide back into place. I was deteriorating fast. I didn't want to run out and try to hunt Des down in a spree of energy that might be my last, but I couldn't afford to wait much longer. I'd thought about going back to the Cornucopia for the first aid kit and supplies, but it was so far I didn't know if it was worth the energy.
I didn't want to die here. Everything was hot and dry and hard. It wasn't like home, where the water went on forever. If I was there, I'd drink it until I burst, salty or not. I wanted to smell that salt in the air again and feel the mist on my face as I watched the waves. I wasn't sure any more that the glory and riches were worth all of this.
Des Redwood
There were little red and blue dots on my skin. My feet and hands tingled and my eye kept twitching. It hurt to use the restroom. I was falling apart.
I seemed disconnected from my body. When I took stock of myself, almost everything was in disarray, and yet I could keep moving. I'd been in pain so long it was normal, and I didn't notice it any more than I noticed my nose. I seemed to float as I walk, like there were two boards attached to my waist and a faint tingling came from feet I didn't have. It was weirdly surreal, like I was on morphling.
I'd be half-dead when I fought Careen, but maybe that would help. I was like a zombie, unable to feel pain and able to push past things that would make real people recoil. Everything was falling away, from thoughts of home to dreams of the future. There was only the fight ahead.
Careen Ellis
I couldn't hold back the tears when I got the package. What I wanted more than anything else in the world was a needle of morphling to shoot straight into my face. What I got was a sling to hold the bones together, and I shuddered with relief when I put it on. There was a tube of cream with it that I smeared all across my jaw. My face seemed to melt like I was at the dentist, and I'd never felt such rapture at simply not being in pain.
I didn't want to think about what I looked like or what shape my bones were in. I just had to survive one more fight, and it would all be over.
Des Redwood
The Arena was so barren of life I smelled Careen before I saw her. She smelled like the fattest, sweatiest lumberjack to go without showering for a month, and the scent of coppery blood added to it. I heard her footsteps after I smelled her, and last of all I saw her.
So that's what I look like. I didn't expect Careen to look like I felt. Her face looked like her skull had been scrambled and the skin got put back on over the mess. One cheek puffed out grotesquely and she was slumped as she stood. I wasn't sure either of us could cross the distance to get to the other. I tried to stand straight and prepare myself.
Careen Ellis
I thought my eyes were going, or else I was hallucinating. Why would Desiree be wearing gloves? Dimly I registered that they were dangerous, like the hatchet she carried, and I made a note to steer clear of them. The green lines told me they might have something to do with electricity. I summoned the last of my fading brainpower to adjust my plans.
I backed up to the edge of a rocky slope and trained my eyes on Desiree. I cocked an arm back sharply with a knife in it. Desiree anticipated my intent. When I threw the knife, she dodged, but she didn't have to. It sailed over her shoulder and landed in the dirt behind her, raising a cloud of dust. She turned and darted after it to take and use against me. I never threw my knives in training. They weren't even throwing knives. But I had a reason.
Des Redwood
Careen was so tired she couldn't even throw her knives. Adrenaline rushed into me when I first saw her, and I had enough speed to dart after her fallen weapon. She'd still have her other knife and the sword strapped to her back, but one knife was better than two.
Something collided with the back of my head and I fell heavily. I dimly wondered what had happened. Careen couldn't have run behind me that fast even at full health, and her fist felt like it was hard as stone. I turned over and saw her running toward me.
Careen Ellis
I threw a rock at the back of her head. It was not my finest move as a Career. She flipped onto her back and saw I was about to lob another straight at her face. She beat me to it by whipping her hatchet up and at me in a daring all-or-nothing move. It hit me above the right hip and I staggered. Instead of pulling it out, I threw the rock. She was too close to dodge and it hit her just to the left of her nose. She cried out and her head smacked back into the puddle of blood leaking behind it.
I gripped my knife above my head with both hands and threw myself on top of her chest, the flesh in my hip tearing around the hatchet. My weight strengthened the blow and the blade cracked through her ribs and into her heart. I lay atop her, inches from her gloved hands, and neither of us moved. Neither of us could move.
Des Redwood
It must have looked like we were embracing. Careen was slumped on top of me like an exhausted lover. I felt the movement of her breath as she pressed down on my chest. I could have killed her, or at least stunned her, if I could have only moved my hands six inches. I didn't have the energy for that. I was rapidly losing the energy to breathe.
It was meaningless to worry about letting anyone down. My family would love me no matter what, even if I died. I just wanted to leave the Arena.
I was so close to Careen I could see the specks in her eyes. They weren't orange. They were beautiful blue eyes. When I looked closer, I saw tiny green flecks. They were as green as the trees.
Careen Ellis
Des was stiff and hard under me. She was still as the grave, and there was nothing alive about her. But still the cannon didn't go off. If I'd had the energy and if my face wasn't smashed, I'd have laughed when I realized. We were so close they couldn't tell if she was dead. My body atop hers warmed her, and our hearts were so close her tracker registered my beats as hers. I thought about hauling myself off of her, but I was afraid my guts would come out of the hatchet wound.
It must have been fifteen minutes before the cannon sounded. I guess nobody alive goes fifteen minutes between blinks. I couldn't tell if the claw that cast a shadow over us was for me or her. It was going to be hard for it to get just one of us. I was too tired to care. I fainted before it got to us.
2nd place: Desiree Redwood- Stabbed by Careen
I knew Des would last a long time. She was statuesque and ripped. I liked how she was jacked but she was also a normal, friendly girl. She's the kind of girl you'd be friends with and totally forget she could fold you like a clothespin. She and Electra would have dominated in an urban Arena, but she did great here too. Her muscle mass and fitness made her far better equipped to handle the Arena, even as she battled: scurvy, beriberi, dehydration, heat exhaustion, normal exhaustion, and a bladder infection caused by lack of cleaning materials. She didn't have a profound backstory or some supernatural motivation. She was a normal Tribute who did the best she could. Thanks Tinks for Des and I'm glad I didn't kill her or Electra in the Bloodbath.
Victor: Careen Ellis
Careen's form said she'd win, if she did, in a stylish finale using her two knives. She ended up winning in a fight between two lurching invalids with a face like a dropped pot. Nailed it. I loved Careen's love of beauty and how she made me want to know her more. What made me first think Careen could win was her relationship to her mentor. Her form specified it was Mags (the only Canon Four Victor at this point, but she could have taken Shelle), and I thought her skills with Mags' (in my stories) survival acumen could make a great combination. Careen won by adapting. She was smart enough to know she wasn't the strongest Career and to get out when she needed, and she was canny enough to know it's the survivor who wins, not the best fighter. She wasn't the favorite to win, but she pulled it out in the end. Congratulations to TranscendentElvenRanger. You've been around a while and I'm glad to add you to my list of Victors.
AturtlenamedConnor just started an SYOT here s/12130919/1/81st-Hunger-Games-Neverland. I already submitted and you should too because I'm impatient, as you can see by my pace.