Chapter Sixty: Fortune Favors the Proactive

Day Five

Toren Laris, District Nine Female

It's still wet and miserable out this morning, but it's not the nightmare-fuel disaster that made up last night. Zari looks like she got maybe an hour of sleep last night and I'm probably not faring much better, so I think the time has come to get a move on while we can still see and before something incredibly stupid happens.

With the two of us both awake, we can get to talking and planning, neither of which should be that difficult. However, maybe I should wait a few minutes for the both of us to wake up fully so we can keep everything straight. Not that there's much to keep straight anyway considering how limited our supplies and options are, but it's the thought that counts.

"I'm not sure if you have any idea about what we're going to do today, other than maybe walk around and avoid getting killed," I say. "Although with some luck, I don't think that'll be too difficult."

"I'd still like to look for Lacey," Zari says. "If we find her, we stand a chance fighting just about anyone else except maybe what's left of the Careers. You should have seen her fight the Career yesterday, you would have been amazed."

She got a high score despite being quite small, so I probably would have been. Maybe she was into gymnastics or something equally impressive, or maybe she just knew how to get stuff done and wasn't squeamish enough that fighting other people was a problem for her. Then again, if I saw the Careers and wasn't hopelessly outmatched, I'd want to try and kill them too considering all the context behind them.

"Hopefully, it's obvious we can't call for her or anything," I say. Loud noises are just another way to draw other people toward us, and considering neither of us are fighting prodigies and a good chunk of the people who remain are, the less attention we pull, the better.

"It is," Zari says. "I have enough sense for that." She doesn't sound offended at the very least, which is definitely a good thing.

We still don't have much in terms of supplies, so breakfast is a hard skip except for maybe some rainwater. We'll have to make sure we keep the containers open while it's still raining: more water never hurt anyone, even if it's lukewarm. At this stage of the Games, I'll take whatever help I can get.

"Hey," Zari says once we finish drinking. "Do you care at all which direction we go in?"

"As long as we're not doubling back, no," I say, and I mean it. I'd prefer not to retrace our steps in case we accidentally left behind some kind of trail that we couldn't spot but the Careers could, but other than that, we're not moving towards any specific feature of the Arena and we don't have much to orient ourselves with, so we'll figure out where we're supposed to go as we go along.

Thus, Zari points in what might be an arbitrary direction to me but has a point for her, and we begin our trek for the day. The rain still coming down hard but not ridiculously so, the two of us leave our former campsite behind, ready to recruit if and when the time ever comes.

Clara Ridley, District One Female

Nothing got caught in my traps last night, human or animal. None of them even sprung.

Whatever. I can survive knowing they'll be there. I'm sure if they actually snag someone I can get sponsored a few more. And there's plenty of food out there without me needing to resort to traps.

One quick breakfast later, I pack up and move along, wondering if and when I'll be able to find someone again. Either the Arena is really big this year or the Gamemakers have somehow figured out how to screw with my luck, because I haven't stumbled across another soul since the encounter that killed Galadia.

Or maybe I'm just going soft. There's a huge Arena to explore and I haven't covered much of it. If I scour it to the best of my ability I'm sure I'll at least find someone, especially since none of the tributes seemed to display any special abilities when it came to camouflage. I wasn't very good at it either, but I also never saw the point if I could just beat whomever I needed to in direct combat and when it's an unreliable means of sneaking up in the first place.

My spear's still nice and sharp, so it'll still impale anything I need it to nice and easy. However, there isn't anything in sight I really should be impaling with it, for the simple reason that everything I need to target with it needs to be alive and breathing, since I don't want to waste it pointlessly.

As if the Gamemakers were reading my mind, less than fifteen seconds later the goddamn bear emerges from the woods and makes a motion toward me. The coloring is similar to the one that cost me my chance to take out the bitch who killed Galadia, but I'm not sure if it's the same one. Either way, it'll be mine: I need to make a nice impression for the Gamemakers after all the nothing I've been doing, and taking out a powerful mutt will probably do that, or at least put me on the right track.

If the Gamemakers think this is going to be a lengthy or tense fight, they're mistaken. I've prepared for fights like these for years and years, so I can make this nice and quick as long as I don't get fucked over again. Thus, I shout my challenge to the bear as loudly as I can, wanting to grab its attention.

I get a roar in response, and then it charges. Not wanting to give it the decency of a lengthy fight, I wait until it gets in close enough that it won't be able to dodge and then hurl my spear. It works just as it's supposed to. Even though the bear tries to move its head out of the way, it's a maneuver done in vain, and the spear flies through its cheekbone and comes out somewhere behind its left ear, coated in a variety of nasty substances.

The bear only stays upright for a second longer, and then it falls over. There. Vengeance is mine. Even if it's not the same bear, I doubt any of them will be fucking me over when I'm trying to hunt someone else down again now that I can defend myself.

Pulling the spear out in the cleanest manner I can and shaking it a bit to dislodge the solid matter attached to it, I leave the bear's corpse behind me for the Gamemakers to dispose of and begin looking for a safe spot to finish cleaning off my spear. It wouldn't do for it to become any less efficient even if I'm sure it'll still cut through people just fine.

Whatever. There'll be plenty of opportunities for that later, I just need to wait for the finale to approach, as long as I show I'm still interesting enough that people want to see me there. I need to stay impressive at all costs; that's my number one goal other than staying alive in the first place.

If no one wants to watch me, I'll be gone soon, simple as that. And above all else, I want to win the Games. I wore that shirt to my interview for a goddamn reason.

Godric Runestone, District Two Male

As it turns out, rabbits weren't the only thing we could eat here. This morning, I managed to snag a deer that just kind of wandered into the area, and now the two of us are chowing down like our lives depend on it.

Unfortunately, neither of us has any way to save much of it for later, so we'll have to take whatever meat we can and dump the rest of it somewhere else so the flies won't torture us. I'm not exactly an expert at doing that, but how hard can it be?

The answer to that question is that yes, it's very hard. Even dead, the carcass is still bleeding whenever I cut an artery or something, and there's a million organs and bones I need to work around to make sure we're not eating things that aren't edible in the first place. Sienna's helping me the best she can, but this is something she's never had to do much of either, so she's no better than I am. Eventually, we have as much of the meat as we can reasonably get, considering about a third of it went to waste because of all the inedible stuff, so I'm left to drag the remainder of it into the woods while Sienna gets to cooking the meat. Which she's surprisingly good at, by the way: starting a fire while it's raining like this can't be a simple task, yet she somehow manages it in a few minutes. Sure, we have a lighter, which has to help, but we're still burning semi-soaked wood over here. I doubt I'd be able to do anything like that even if I tried.

Unfortunately for how much attention it's probably going to cause, cooking the meat now is a necessity because that means it'll last a bit longer. We have too much meat for any sane two people to eat in a single day, and I don't want to waste it (or even worse, let another tribute with a shot at killing us have it), so this comes before anything else, even finding out a way for us to be alone in the spotlight for as long as we can.

Once enough of the meat is cooked that I can assume Sienna knows how to handle the rest, I get to talking with her. "Plan?"

"Look for a reliable source of water," Sienna says. "Remember when they poisoned basically all of the natural food supply last year? In case something like that happens again, I want to be able to stock up now while we still can."

That's a reasonable enough expectation. I don't want to be starving or thirsty either.

"I'm sure we're fine for now since we made the last kill unless I missed a cannon last night or something, but we do need to get back on track regarding our hunting," I respond. "The longer we spend without any kills, the worse off we'll be."

Sienna nods, and I hope she means it. Sponsors are the lifeblood of most Careers, especially later in the Games, so pissing them off or boring them is an absolute death sentence at least a solid ninety percent of the time.

Although we have plenty of food at the moment and water isn't a concern yet, there's still other things you could use sponsors for: medicine, replacement weapons, cryptic hints about other upcoming Arena events or tribute plans, the list goes on. While the outliers have mostly learned to make do without these hints for now, in this position I'll take every advantage I can get. If I lose one of the few things we have over other tributes over something as stupid as an extended period of inaction, I'd be at best annoyed as hell and at worst enraged.

Neither of us stays at our campsite very long, for which I'm glad. We scarf down a huge helping of charred deer meat for breakfast, pack as much of the rest as we can seal, and then it's time to get moving. Enough other factions are fighting for attention at the moment that we can't afford to slip or be overshadowed. I'm sure there'll be at least one more opportunity when we can just sit around and talk for a short while during the Games, probably at night so no one else is really doing anything either.

As soon as we leave the place we slept behind, probably forever, I can't help but think about how a new day has finally begun.

We have now entered the hours of the Games that actually matter. With some good luck, we'll be able to capitalize on an opportunity as soon as we can, and then the Games will really begin.

Romeo Brady, District Eight Male

The rain's finally tapered off, so while both Max and I have soaked shirts that we'd probably be worried about wringing out if it wasn't so steamy outside, we're no longer actively getting soaked.

However, that does mean we've reached the end of the period we can collect water from, and since we had very few suitable containers, while the water we snagged is enough for a day or two, it's not going to power us through the rest of the Games. With good luck, the Gamemakers will tone down the temperature a bit to help us out, but they're the Gamemakers, I wouldn't be counting on that.

With no active objectives at the moment other than to maybe try and find a suitable target (the precious few of them that remain, anyway) the two of us are just kind of mindlessly trekking through the Arena, wondering what the Gamemakers will throw at us next. Hurricane? Forest fire, maybe? Swarm of mutts like they use to corral tributes into one area? No matter what, we need to be on our toes.

The mindless walking keeps up for a little while, but as I look around to ensure we're not going to be ambushed by any unwelcome surprises, I notice something a bit odd, to say the least.

Someone's in one of the trees coming up. Not too far away, maybe two hundred feet or so, but close enough that I can't make out any specific details. A few more steps forward, and I get confirmation that if we've ever gotten a lucky break, it's now.

I manage to resist the urge to point. Sudden movements might draw our target's attention, and if she bolts I'm not sure either of us will be able to keep up. Instead, I lean nice and close to Max, making sure he hears what I have to whisper to him. "I think that's what we're looking for."

"Wait," Maxxer whispers back. "What do you mean? I don't see anything."

"Jackpot," I whisper to Max, although the word feels a bit hollow. "Besides us, she has the lowest score here. If we can take on anyone, it's probably her."

I make the subtlest motions of my head I can to get Max's eyes focused in the direction that I'm looking, which works just fine to get Max on the same page. The girl hasn't noticed us yet, maybe the whole 'don't look down when you're climbing' motto has been drilled into her too hard or something. Her position is a bit unfortunate for us, though: she's low enough to the ground that she can leap off the tree and run if we give her the opportunity, but she's high enough we can't reach her without some climbing. And in case the fingers aren't enough indication, I'm not much of a climber.

Max hears one more thing from me before we cross the point of no return. "Can you climb trees?"

"Not well, but enough to get up there," he responds. That's all I need to hear. We might as well get started, it's now or never.

"You go left, I go right," I say, and with that the two of us charge to the base of the tree, the girl finally noticing us when we get nice and close. She hisses several things under her breath that sound vaguely like curses, and that's when the game officially begins.

We can't just wait under the tree for her to come out; she's not guaranteed to leave and even if she was I think she knows better than to drop right in front of us. She survived this long for a reason, we can't assume that she's anything but intelligent. The two of us stand on opposite sides of the tree, maybe twenty feet from the trunk in case she tries to leap for it. It's not going to do much if she has any kind of agility since neither of us is very fast, but there's no harm in trying.

"You guys do realize you're wasting your time, right?" Okay, apparently this girl wants to talk. "I've got enough supplies to last the rest of the Games and I have no reason to get out of this tree. You sure you're willing to sit here for days waiting for me to come out only for me to pull one over on you and get away?"

Well, that's going to get annoying fast. "I think we'll be fine. There's two of us and one of you, we can handle it."

"That's what the damn Careers said, and look what happened to them," the girl replies, and that makes me almost start to reconsider. If she managed to outwit the damn Careers, what chance do we have of holding her back? Then again, maybe she could be exaggerating what happened or just outright lying, or maybe whatever happened with the Careers happened because of sheer dumb luck and nothing else…

In between one thought and the next, the girl jumps, taking her backpack with her as she breaks her fall with a sloppy roll, standing up almost equidistant from the two of us. Both of us charge but she's off like a shot before we can get her, and now we're going to have to chase her down and it's going to be both annoying and dangerous trying to catch her.

"Might as well try," Max says as he runs. I can't help but agree with his sentiment. If we let her get away, our chances of making it to the end of the Games plummet to almost zero. We have terrible enough odds as is, we don't need to make them any worse.

Hurrying along with ragged, panting breaths, the girl close enough to remain in sight at all times but far enough that attacking her is impossible with the weapons we have, the two of us attempt to prove to the Capitol we're not just weaklings.

Even though neither of us stands to die right now, this is life or death for everyone involved.

Author's Notes:

-I honestly had this done last night, but I was so damn exhausted that I didn't have the energy to post. In return, you get this chapter at a reasonable time once more!

-While this isn't great news, I might not be able to keep this up forever. Almost certainly for the rest of the summer, but once I return to college I'm going to have a lot more work to do, especially since I'm going to be taking on a year-long project for school. (Although by contrast, it'll probably ramp up my output when I do have free time, because writing might be the only thing that keeps me from going crazy.)

-In case the last segment's not a clue, we're going to get some action next chapter. It honestly might be enough to warrant three chapters for this day instead of two, but I'll have to see how that shakes out.

-That's all from me. I hope you enjoyed, and see you next chapter!