Chapter Fifty-Eight: Waiting For the Rain

Night Four

Lacey Loveless, District Eight Female

Unfortunately, the Gamemakers decided tonight needed to bring rain, so I can't look for Zari.

Between the clouds and the lack of sunlight, it's quickly getting so dark outside I'm tripping every handful of steps, and constantly bumping into things I either can't or can barely see. I probably should just stop walking so I don't sprain my ankle or something, because getting seriously injured in this hellhole is a death sentence, but I just can't do it, not yet. I'd prefer to have Zari by my side, or at least be off the beaten path so I'm harder to see.

Eventually, I wind up walking dead-on into a tree, and that's the sign I take that any attempts at searching aren't going to work tonight. The best I can do is find somewhere hidden that I can sleep for a few hours, then leave behind when it starts getting lighter again.

I still have my knives (most of them, anyway) plus a good chunk of the supplies I pilfered from the Career I killed. The bag they're in has a gaping hole, courtesy of the spear thrown into it earlier, but it doesn't look like much leaked out. I can't inspect it now since I can't really see what's in it, but I checked as soon as I thought it was safe to stop moving: a bladed weapon of some kind, an apple, two full bottles of water, and about half of a first-aid kit.

The water I drink a few sips of, since I haven't been able to stop anywhere to get some otherwise, depleting about half of one of the bottles. The apple I leave for now, I'm hungry but I need to sleep, and eating anything with sugar at this time of night isn't going to help.

Tree-climbing in the dark also seems like a bad idea, so I decide to settle for sleeping on the ground. There's plenty of bushes and tall plants in the area, I'm sure I can find a large enough cluster of them to conceal me for however long I'm asleep. Finding one doesn't take long even with the terrible lighting, although crawling under them is more of a process than I would have liked. It even manages to hide all my supplies, although I have to do some digging and rearranging to hide the marks I made dragging my supplies into the makeshift shelter.

As I try and find a comfortable position to lie down in, thoughts of Zari try their fucking hardest to overtake my brain. Everything I've done so far before now has more or less revolved around her, after all.

I wonder what she's doing.

I wonder if she's looking for me.

I wonder if she's even alive.

Zari Morelett, District Six Female

Toren's not a bad ally by any means. She's nice enough and we've split everything equally thus far, although how that'll work for the vial of serum in my possession is beyond me at the moment. We haven't decided anything about that yet, and I'm not sure if we ever will with the way things are going.

We managed to eat some cold food (with clouds beginning to slip into the sky in a steady stream as the night deepened, setting a fire felt way too risky) before it got too dark to see anything, but now there's no moon, no stars, no anything. Unfortunately, I don't think either of us has flashlights or anything of the sort with us at the moment, and even if it did, that'd probably be way too dangerous, perhaps even worse than lighting a fire. At least a fire is stationary.

With dinner handled and it being too dark to attempt much in the way of offensive maneuvers, all that's left to do is plan and sleep. Just like Lacey, Toren wants to have a plan for absolutely everything, which is what she decides to talk about with me right now.

"Any thoughts on our long-term goals?"

Honestly, I have little to offer beyond base survival, especially since I'm not a killing machine if my encounter with the Careers means anything. While I'm not the worst person in the world at finding supplies and the like, I'm also not very helpful in combat. If we try to hunt someone down now, especially if Lacey's not in the picture, that could go very wrong, very fast.

Undeterred by my answer for her first question, Toren keeps pressing. "Are we still going to keep looking for Lacey tomorrow?"

I nod. For one, she'd be insanely helpful during combat, if this morning was any indication, and two, in an alliance of three, we could potentially take on the girl who chased us this morning if she tries to attack us. Whether we'd win that encounter or not is still an open question, but at least we'd have a chance.

"One more thing," Toren adds. "Shifts?"

"I'll take the first shift tonight," I say. I'm not anywhere near tired and even if I was, my brain's been so hyperactive today I don't think I'd be able to shut it off long enough to sleep. Lying down while awake seems like a waste of effort, so I might as well try to put myself to something useful.

Toren seems fine with that. "I know neither of us can tell time right now, but try to wake me up in about four hours and I'll take over. I'm sure you need sleep too."

After that, Toren finds a spot to sleep. Whatever thoughts I've been having isn't impacting her, or at least not in the same way as me, because she seems to fall asleep in mere seconds. I can't even hear her breathing.

Peering through the gloom with Toren's knife in hand, I wonder who else, or what else, I might need to attack with it in the near future.

I sincerely hope it's not the Careers.

Clara Ridley, District One Female

As easy as it would be to sneak up on an unsuspecting tribute, I know better than to try hunting in these conditions. Too easy to stumble into a trap or off a cliff or something equally stupid. There's eleven other tributes left and I'm working alone. No need to take pointless risks.

Currently, I'm in an area that appears to be dedicated to a sport I don't quite understand how to play. There's a couple of squared-off areas filled with sand, and there's a net halfway across each of them. I also found a couple of balls lying around, not that I'm really in any position to use them. I'm guessing the game has something to do with getting the ball over the net, but heck if I know. At least the sand is deep enough that I can bury most of my supplies to better hide my presence.

Just because I can't hunt doesn't mean I can't do anything useful, though. I still have plenty of time to get myself something to eat and drink, make sure I have a weapon in easy reach of where I'm planning to sleep, and do a perimeter check in case I've got any tributes watching me. The only problem now is that without an ally, I'm not going to have anyone guarding me while I sleep. Fortunately, when I checked the supplies I brought with me earlier, I found a partial solution for that.

While it doesn't replace the need to actively hunt, being able to set up traps is a major skill for the Games, and in this case I mean it in the literal sense (although the figurative one isn't any less applicable). Neither Godric nor Sienna appeared to have any particular skill with traps in the physical sense, so if I want to put myself back on the map, this seems like an excellent way to get that started.

Calling me ingenious with machines is a massive lie, but I know how to put together traps, especially since the two I have with me came in what can best be described as a build-your-own-trap kit. In other words, all the pieces are there, I just need to have enough brainpower to put them together the right way. I've done this a million and one times at the training center, I could probably assemble them blindfolded.

This darkness does come pretty close to being a full-on blindfold, so putting everything together is a bit difficult, but after the work is done and I test the traps with some rocks, both work perfectly. Awesome. Now I just need to find a place to put them.

"Okay," I say to myself. "If I was a tribute with half a brain trying to approach this area without being seen, where would I come from?"

I don't have a compass and the moon isn't out, so I can't figure out the orientation of these directions, but both of my traps get concealed as well as I can make them just outside the areas with the thickest brush. With my security as assured as it's getting and everything I have as well hidden as I can get it, the time has come to rest.

Finding a good sleeping position in the sand, especially since whenever I'm not lying on my back it keeps getting in my eyes, nose, and mouth, is a bit difficult, but I've slept in less-comfortable places. I only need a few hours, anyway, and I don't want to sleep so deeply that I don't hear something coming up on me.

I force myself to count in a whisper as I try to sleep, wanting my brain to have something to focus on so it doesn't check out completely. "12, 13, 14, 15…"

Somewhere between 130 and 140, my focus fades and I slip away from this world, if only for a little while.

Maxxer "Max" Bent, District Twelve Male

In any other circumstance, this would be a great time to sit around in the dark and tell ghost stories. However, both of us are scared enough of the real threats around us, we don't need to be terrified of fictional ones as well.

It's pitch-dark outside, and the air feels wet and heavy. If the sun had been out, I would have been sweating through my clothes, but fortunately, in the dark my shirt is enough to contain the ensuing sweat. I hope tomorrow will be a bit cooler, but I swear it's been getting hotter every single day, so I'm not counting on it.

Romeo keeps his voice at a whisper, probably just in case anyone else might be listening. "Same shifts as yesterday?"

Let's wait on that for now. "Can we stay awake until after the anthem? I want to know who's dead."

There's a simple enough reason for that, and that's because I need to figure out who our easiest remaining targets are, or if we even have a target in the first place. The picture's pretty bleak right now if I remember it correctly: Romeo's the lowest-scoring tribute who's still alive, and I'm not much further away from him (and frankly, got a higher score than I deserved). The girl from Three was still alive last I remember and scored low, but you never know with those tributes; everyone's always concerned they're hiding something, and this time is no different. All of the other remaining tributes either matched or exceeded my score, and did so through (probably) legitimate means. As a team? Maybe we could take one of the weaker ones down. Maybe.

Romeo's got something to say about that, though. "Why doesn't just one of us stay awake, so we can start shifts now? I'm sure one of us will be up to see the recap no matter what time it comes out."

He has a point there, which I concede. "Okay then. You want to go first or second?"

"Don't care."

"Looks like I'm going first."

"Done."

As I lean back against a tree with a rock in my hand, alternating between looking up and scanning around me as I wait for the anthem to start, Romeo curls up on the ground and goes to sleep. I doubt I'll look very threatening to anyone who actually tries to attack us, but at the same time, it's so hard to see I'm pretty sure the only way that'll happen is if someone literally trips over Romeo. I'm not saying that can't happen, but it probably won't. I doubt anyone else is making much progress with this complete lack of light, and even if someone is, we'd probably hear them well before they got into range.

Despite my talk, I'd still probably flee instead of fight if it came to that. Fumbling around with a rock in the dark while trying to hit someone who probably has a much better weapon might possibly be the stupidest idea I can think of at the moment. I'm sure there's worse, but none of those ideas come to mind at the moment.

As I look up at the sky, a brilliant flash lights up the world for a split second. A faint rumble follows what I'm guessing is twenty seconds later.

Well, looks like we're headed for a thunderstorm. If things go well, we might even avoid getting fried.

Author's Notes:

-Shorter chapter this time around. Everyone's staying still/sleeping at the moment since no one can see anything, so I didn't want to pad out the chapter any longer than it needed to be.

-Chapter title was shamelessly borrowed/stolen from the credits song for Season 1 of The Asterisk War, an anime that I felt had tons of potential and didn't make use of much of it. (There's a reason I wrote a couple of fanfics for it even if the fandom is nonexistent.) Go give it a listen if you have the time.

-I wish I had something else interesting to tell you, but I really don't. I hope you enjoyed, and see you next chapter!