Chapter XII: An Ancient Instinct

A/N: There was some writer's block on this chapter, but I plugged through it. Thanks go out to TheReaper94 and alexandria-likethecityinegypt for their help. This is the second chapter in the arc. Some more gore in this chapter, courtesy of one of our Careers. Hope you enjoy! SSD

0900 Day IX

Isabel managed to get snatches of sleep over the course of the night between getting up to go to the bathroom and dealing with the twinges of pain that were growing in frequency, intensity, and duration.

She'd managed to carve all four rooks in the midst of all that.

"What piece to carve next," Isabel thought to herself before another contraction hit. She leaned against the wall of the cave to ride it out.

Isabel looked at her watch. They'd been steadily getting closer together all night, with the last one being 13 minutes ago.

"That was a big one," she thought, "But they'll get bigger."

Her water hadn't broken. Yet. She was thankful for that small blessing at the moment.

She looked at the wall of snow. It wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

The baby was still moving around in between the contractions. While a bit irksome, it did let Isabel know that her little one was still alive.

"Take it easy alright? You'll be out soon enough," she murmured as she gave her belly a rub.

1100 Day IX

Since the death of Achilles the day before, Freya had been on edge. She had barely slept the night before, expecting Trident or Serena to kill her in her sleep.

Serena might let her leave peacefully. On the other hand, she was surprised that Trident hadn't killed her already.

Freya remembered her thoughts on the male volunteer from 4. She could tell that he'd be one who liked killing and killing messily.

She looked over her supplies she had in her pack: Five packets of beef jerky, one packets of dried fruit, a large and full water bottle, some water purification tablets, and a sleeping bag. Her katana was next to the sack.

It was now or never.

"If I die, I want it to be an honest fight, not in my sleep," Freya thought as she bolted for the treeline with her supplies.

"Well I guess the alliance is over," Trident remarked. This would just make things easier.

"So it is," Serena replied calmly.

With no warning at all, Trident whirled around and stabbed Serena in the chest, then the stomach with his namesake weapon, twirling her intestines like they were spaghetti noodles.

"This is certainly a mess," the sandy haired boy said as he continued to twirl her intestines.

Serena Emerald, 9th Place, District 1, stabbed in the chest and stomach, Day IX, Trident Hook

Trident removed his weapon and began to clean it. He'd deal with Freya later.

Damon, Thomas, and Rose paused in their shoveling at the sound of the latest cannon firing.

Thomas said, "We're in the Elite Eight now."

"That means family interviews back in the districts. Hopefully they'll talk to Izzy's little brother Tristan more than the rest of her family. He's the only one who's been treating her right since Erik's death," Damon growled.

"So who's left besides us," Rose asked.

"Two Careers, the four of us..." Thomas furrowed his brow. That was only six. Who had he forgotten?

"I haven't seen hide nor hair of the two from 7 on any of my patrols. They must be hiding themselves well," Damon remarked.

There were six more tributes standing between he and Isabel getting back to 10.

Back in the Capitol...

Kronus Amarillo had just returned from District 4 after interviewing Trident Hook's family. He had come to see where the potentially sociopathic career tribute got his behavior from: His father, who had talked about nothing else but his son's most recent and gruesome kill with glee.

The man was also of the opinion that his son would win and get to cut a newborn child out of it's mother as a trophy.

Kronus had never been more glad to finish an Elite 8 interview, which would have to be heavily edited before he could even think about showing it in the Capitol.

On his way to the editing area, he spied Thalia Ozera. They were friendly enough with each other and she had been sent to District 10, which was one of two remaining districts with both of their tributes still in the Games.

The tributes from 10 were certainly an interesting pair this year. Isabel Storm was near the end of her pregnancy, and was suspected to be in labor. Damon Martell was a rare outer district volunteer, albeit his reason for volunteering was to fulfill a promise to his dead best friend, who was the father. To add to the mix, Damon's twin brother James was said to be in love with Isabel.

"Thalia, how was District 10," he asked.

"Dusty. I only really interviewed the Martells. They were more open about Isabel. Her family was less than helpful. However, her younger brother was visiting the Martells. I can work with what he gave me," Thalia replied.

"Did you talk to the male tribute's twin about Isabel," Kronus asked.

"I tried. The poor lad turned crimson when I asked about her. How was 4?"

"Let's just say that I can see where the boy gets his behavior from," Kronus shuddered.

He'd heard rumors of Victors killed after their Games, due to the fact that they'd come to like killing and decided they didn't want to stop after leaving the arena. Their deaths were always written off as accidents.

If Trident Hook won, sometime down the road, he would likely become one of those Victors.

1700 Day IX

The pain was getting worse. The contractions were now only five minutes apart.

Isabel was trying to remain as calm as possible. She'd given up carving the chess pieces a short time earlier since the contractions were starting to make her hands shake.

Her water still hadn't broke. She was thinking that getting her lower clothes off now while they were dry would be easier than trying to get them off wet.

Isabel toed off her shoes followed by her socks a short time later.

"Thankfully the jacket we were given is a long one," she thought as she removed the rest of her clothing on her lower body.

By some miracle, she'd gotten this done in less than five minutes. Which meant she got to be sitting in her camp chair when the next contraction hit.

"I want this little devil out of me and in my arms!"

Damon was on edge. He had a feeling in his bones that the Games would be ending soon.

As he looked at the tent where his allies were napping, Damon ran his hand along his machete.

They would soon outlive their usefulness. But Damon would not kill them in their sleep.

He was a better man than that!

Back in the Game Center...

Haymitch, Tylara, and Aras all breathed sighs of relief when Damon turned back his attention to standing his watch.

"I was pretty sure your boy wasn't going to kill them, but he had me going for a moment," Haymitch remarked as he took a belt from a flask that he had on him.

"A fight is coming. The other tributes are slowly moving towards that area," Aras said as he flicked a glance at the other screens showing the tributes.

"Looks like the Gamemakers are going for a second bloodbath," Tylara replied with a slight shudder. That had been where she'd won her Games.

"The pair from 7 have split up. Don't they know that the both go home," Haymitch said as he looked at the screen depicting the split. It was an amicable one.

2048 Day IX

"Why won't this kid hurry up and get out of me?!"

That had been one of the main things that had been going through Isabel's mind for the past few hours.

She'd been walking a lot, which was said to help things along. While the contractions hit during her pacing, she had leaned against the wall with her hand against her belly.

The contractions were now hitting hard and fast, she couldn't believe that her water hadn't broken yet.

As soon as that thought entered her mind, Isabel's insides seemed to clench, and the next thing she saw was a puddle of mud between her feet.

"Ah shit!"

A/N 2: And we have a cliffhanger! The next chapter is going to be full of action! Can't wait to hear what you all think!