Chapter Sixty-Three: Their Eyes Are All On Me
Still Night Five
Thomiah Marshall, District Eleven Male
This is going to be an experience, I'm sure of that. How many chances are you going to get into a fight in this scenario?
We're going to catch them sooner rather than later, and at that point the real fun will begin whether they want it to or not. It might just be me, but I doubt this is something they get trained for: if there's a way to simulate a whirlpool like this, I can't even think of it.
The only bad part is that Odysea doesn't have much to fend off the Careers at close range. I think there's a knife or something that she brought with her, but that's about it, and her bow's only going to be useful as long as she has arrows for it. She's noticed that as well and stopped shooting, waiting for the Careers to get to the point where she can actually aim.
In what feels like seconds, we're almost alongside them, and the fight we've all been waiting for has officially begun.
The sickle gets raised, and I block the first swing of the sword before lunging with an attack of my own, which the boy ducks. With both our boats starting to wobble, I'm pretty confident the two of us come to the same conclusion at the same time. The goal isn't to directly kill our opponents or even get in a nice stab. All we need to do is knock them into the water and the whirlpool will take care of the rest.
Odysea's ditched her bow and is trying to get in hits with the knife, but it's so short compared to the weapons the Careers are using that even with the increased speed the serum's granting us, she's going to lose her fingers if she keeps that up.
I'm already occupied trying to keep the boat steady over the boy's onslaught, which means the girl has time to go after Odysea and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. Instead of slashing at her, though, she takes an idea from her ally's book and stabs at the boat. It must be made of tougher stuff than I realized because her trident makes three scratches but nothing else, and then Odysea swings the knife so hard and so wild her adversary almost lets go of her weapon. I try knocking my foe's weapon out of the way so I can press her, but the trick doesn't work, he's got too much experience for that.
Another slash of the sword and I'm back to occupied, barely managing to block it as the girl jabs at me with her trident. Somehow I manage to sidestep it, attempting once more to knock it out of her hand, the boat barely avoiding taking on water during it all. She holds onto her weapon more firmly this time, stabbing back at me at the same time as her ally goes for Odysea, who dodges the blade by maybe an inch. Odysea retaliates with her knife, but the boy pulls back in time before trying to knock the weapon out of her hand and succeeding, causing Odysea to dive back and go for her bow, probably to try and shoot them if she can ever find the time to aim.
Then they look at each other, and everything starts going to hell.
Both of them go for the boat with everything they have, trying to tip it over. They don't succeed in doing that, but they do manage to make the boat rock harder than before, hard enough that both of us have to flail around and struggle to keep our balance.
I manage to stay in the boat despite it all.
Odysea does not.
She hits the water with a terrified screech. I try to grab her arm, but she's swiftly swept out of reach, and that time's used by both Careers to nearly skewer me.
With a hideous shriek and the last vestiges of serum-enhanced strength I have, I aim my weapon at the Career closer to me and shove so hard I almost fall off the boat, the weapon getting blocked but pushes their boat away from mine due to the sheer force. It's not enough to jostle the weapon from the boy's hands, but it does knock him back into his ally, which makes their boat rock precariously and start taking on water. They recoil away from me and try to fix the boat, but all that does is make the motion more tumultuous until the boat is upside down and both of them are taking an unplanned swim.
Well, that means they're off my back, at least for now. Now I have to try and save my friend.
Godric Runestone, District Two Male
The boat's tipping over, shit shit SHIT—
And now the both of us are in the water. I'm flailing like crazy in some kind of desperate attempt to swim, but I only broach the surface for split seconds at a time before sinking again. Maybe being underwater is useful at the moment, since the boy from Eleven's the only one left with the high ground right now, but right now he seems more concerned with trying to save his drowning ally, so maybe I need to focus more on staying alive. Whatever frantic flailing motions I can make, I get started, but all that seems to do is make me drown faster.
Then Sienna's there, swimming with an odd stroke I've never seen before in her life, grabbing my arm desperately and trying to pull me up. Unfortunately, despite everything I try all I feel like is dead weight and even Sienna's tiring, although we make some kind of infinitesimal progress toward the sky and my lungs are screaming at me and vibrant colors are dancing in my eyes…
Right as we get a quick, sharp breath in, the noise and fury come back in full force. Still making headway, barely, the water trying to drag us both to hell with everything it has as Sienna keeps us both afloat with everything she has. I'm trying to help but I might honestly be better off just holding still because at least then I remain an easy passenger or something like that.
Sienna contradicts that once we break the surface for more than half a second at a time. "Come on, paddle! Do you want to die?"
I don't, even though I can't answer her aloud.
The whirlpool still roaring in my ears as I make every motion I think might help us make progress through the water, I half-swim toward what I hope is the outer section of the lake, Sienna helping me and trying to get herself to safety at the same time, the struggle never-ending and the fear omnipresent.
Sienna's trying to mask it but I can see she's struggling too, I guess there's only so much weight she can handle. There has to be a point where I tell her to leave me behind so we don't both drown, but how am I possibly supposed to know when that point occurs until she gives up and lets the vortex suck us both down? Goddamn it, why the fuck did we have to be on the fucking lake in the first place, there were so many other parts of the Arena we could have explored where drowning wasn't a possibility and I didn't run the risk of getting us both killed. Now none
The pulling sensation weakens. Not enough to breathe easy, or even necessarily breathe at all, but now staying afloat takes a little less effort. Sienna's paddling becomes stronger and we start working toward the edges, the time spent underwater growing shorter and shorter as I begin to cough up all the shit I inhaled, and then I feel my shoes touch the bottom of the lake.
One last feeble attempt at a swimming motion as Sienna begins to drag me out of the water and that's all it fucking takes.
Dry land.
Sweet, solid, dry land. We've made it back to shore.
None of my senses want to work right at the moment, but I can hear enough to understand Sienna's professing her thanks for something. I'm not sure what.
All my clothes are soaked through and my vision's blurry and I can barely fucking breathe, but that doesn't matter, because I'm on solid ground and Sienna's here and as long as she's around I don't think either of us are going to die. With both of us hacking up lake water and the world spinning, I'm dimly aware as I collapse to the ground, every breath a ragged gasp and still attempting to rid myself of everything in my stomach and lungs at the same time, Sienna looking little better but still watching me with terror, grabbing my arm like she's not sure I'm going to make it.
I will. I swear on that, although it's silent because my lips won't cooperate at the moment. For Freya and Dorian and everyone that I went into the Games for.
That's when the cannon goes off.
It's almost shameful, but all I can feel is relief that it isn't mine before I black out.
Clara Ridley, District One Female
With the sun soon rising on my third day in a row without another soul to speak with, I wonder how much more of this I can take before I lose it. And I don't just mean the lack of company.
I've been hunting like fucking crazy, and apart from securing enough food to outlast the apocalypse, I haven't gotten anything useful out of it. I'm more or less out of traps, and despite having heard several cannons since Galadia died, none of them have been by my hand.
Am I being demonized here or something? Everyone else appears to have gotten their shot to stand out, but even though I'm stronger than just about all of them, I've been out of the spotlight for far too long. Why aren't the Gamemakers cooperating?
I chew on that, alongside some of my generous food supply, before I think about anything else. Halfway through my meal, the Capitol anthem starts playing.
Well, it looks like they finally got around to showing off who died today. Did the Gamemaker in charge of that fall asleep? Either way, now I'll get to know who else I don't need to worry about anymore.
Boy from Eight, no surprise there. He was dead from the minute he got Reaped if I remember correctly. Girl from Eleven, okay, that's a bit more of a surprise. She at least had the potential to be a threat under the right circumstances, but clearly those never came up. She was also part of the anti-Career bunch Galadia and I didn't run into post-Bloodbath, so that's another important kill I'm not going to get.
While math was never my strong suit back home, all that's needed to figure out how many more tributes stand in my way is to count backward from my last tally. We're not at the final eight yet, but we're getting uncomfortably close, and other than that absolute facade of a duel with the anti-Career packs that murdered Galadia I've accomplished nothing of value since the second day of these goddamn Games. That's unacceptable if I want to win.
Bite, chew, swallow. No time to waste just sitting around and waiting for someone to come to me. That's what the traps are for. Or would be if I wasn't out of them. I guess I could get donated more, but that's either not something worth the money I'm being sent since they haven't done anything yet, or it's being held back for a more specific reason than that. Is Frosting trying to give me an obtuse hint that there's no one around here and I need to get moving if I want to make any kind of progress? I kind of figured that one out on my own.
Grab supplies, stand up, start walking. The sun will be out before long, but I'm not going to wait for it. I need to get fucking moving and make an impact so there's a reason for me to stay alive.
The time has come for another hunt. And there better be blood spilled on this one.
Toren Laris, District Nine Female
After our delightful encounter with that pack of wolves earlier tonight, I didn't get much sleep, although part of that came from there simply not being enough night to go around. Still, I'm awake as the sky starts to lighten and the sun prepares to rise, waiting to see whether Zari's going to wake up on her own or if I'm going to have to do that myself.
Pacing back and forth and trying to get my rowdy thoughts to stay still for long enough to form anything resembling a coherent plan, I keep an eye out for any intruders. Fortunately enough, none show up. I don't know if I have the energy or attention needed to take someone on right now, and I'd rather not find out the hard way.
When the sun begins peeking out and Zari's still deeply asleep, that's when the time has come. She must have gone down hard, because even after I started shaking her, she only started stirring once I started trying to get her to a standing position myself.
Only for her to immediately fall over with a halfhearted chuckle. "Sorry. Guess I need to earn my sea legs again."
That makes absolutely no sense. "We're nowhere near water, you know."
Zari shakes her head. "Never mind. Thanks for waking me up. So, anything you want to accomplish today other than getting chased by wolves?"
"Find someone to make us stand out before we become the weakest links," I say. And as much as I wish I didn't, I mean it. With the boy from Eight gone, there's maybe three tributes left I could take in a fight barring Zari, and there's no reason to fight her right now. While she hasn't exactly been much help yet, at the same time, she hasn't been a hindrance either. She's sort of just been there.
While Zari doesn't seem to like that very much, I can at least tell she understands that at this point it's a necessity. We've gone through five days of nothing. We're going to run out of good will pretty soon at this rate, especially since all the weaker tributes seem to be dying left and right.
"If we're looking for someone like that, I'd think they'd be in the thicker woods," I add. "Maybe there's a hiding place we missed, or somewhere tributes are holed up that we haven't noticed yet. I'm not sure where that could be, but all we can do is look."
Zari nods. "I'm not sure if we even have the stuff needed for breakfast, so how about we get going and look for that for a bit?"
I don't have a problem with that. Hunger and thirst aren't an issue at the moment but they might be soon if we can't find anything. Plus, it's hard to win a fight or even find the tribute if you're starving. Under that logic, it doesn't take long for the two of us to start heading towards wherever our path may take us, trying to prepare ourselves for whatever may come our way.
The time has come to start yet another day. I hope for both of our sakes that this one's memorable.
Eulogies:
Odysea Davos, District 11 Female, 11th Place (Killed by Drowning): Odysea definitely had some interesting elements to her, although I feel like she got overshadowed by her allies a bit. Writing the dynamic between her and Thomiah was pretty fun and I enjoyed watching her progress as a character as the future darkened further. Unfortunately, she lacked the swimming skills to make it out of this one. Thanks for sending her in, DMonkey1607.
Kills:
-Other: 3 unassisted (Aryion [suicide], Catarina [mosquito muttations], Odysea [drowning]), 1 assisted (Artesia [bear muttation])
-Galadia: 2 unassisted (Fox, Vick), 1 assisted (Alexa)
-Clara: 1 unassisted (Remi), 2 assisted (Faolan, Alexa)
-Godric: 3 assisted (Faolan, Marius, Spark)
-Lacey: 1 unassisted (Galadia)
-Sotia: 1 unassisted (Romeo)
-Odysea: 2 assisted (Nascar, Artesia)
-Sienna: 2 assisted (Marius, Spark)
-Artesia, Thomiah: 1 assisted (Nascar)
Author's Notes:
-I've got nothing. Hope you liked the whirlpool scene, that one took a while for me to figure out.
-That's literally it. Thanks for reading, and see you next chapter!