Each day the ring of mountains became steadily steeper, funnelling the tributes into the valley – but it also directed the wildlife into the valley as well. Whether it was the increased wildlife or Gamemaker intervention, the food sources were drying up with exponential speed. And while they'd been getting more sponsor gifts since Ian had joined them, they couldn't survive on the gifts alone.
Ian had insisted on doing the hunting and foraging alone, despite the fact that both Cindi and Matthew had more experience and knowledge when it came to gathering edible plants. Matthew made no attempts to hide his loud, angry rants about his distrust of Ian's motives and suspicions of what he was really doing while he was supposedly looking for food.
In fact, he was becoming increasingly certain that Ian was trying to secure his victory by gaining their trust in order to get them out of the way. It had gotten to the point that he refused to eat any food that Ian foraged for them and he begged the others to do the same.
And as his paranoia increased, Emily's frustration with him grew as well. She loved Matthew like a brother and wanted very much to protect him, but she just couldn't understand his suspicions and they were starting to get on her nerves.
Ian had insisted that he had found a patch of berries that hadn't yet been infiltrated by tributes or the herd of deer that had managed to outrun the predators.
But as she lay pinned to the ground by Ian who was doing everything in his power to stop her from escaping the safety of their hiding place, Emily was seriously wondering whether they hadn't inadvertently wandered into a Gamemaker trap.
They'd been busy filling their stomachs and their packs with berries when a strange sharp clicking reverberated through the surrounding woods. Not to be deterred from a bountiful food source, they'd continued gorging themselves, writing the noise off as nearby wildlife.
That is, until an extremely large scorpion – nearly twice as big as any of them – came skittering into the clearing with speed seemingly at odds with the number of legs. With a flying leap, launched itself at Cindi with foreclaws spread wide, looking easily capable of crushing a human skull as effortlessly as if it were made of butter. It latched one of its massive claws around her throat, choking off the scream she made, reducing it to a small mewl.
Ian had immediately grabbed Emily around the waist and threw her over his shoulder, then backed slowly and quietly into the trees. When they were safely concealed by a dense clot of underbrush and rocks, he set her back on the ground and turned to peer cautiously out at the fight.
When she had recovered from the immediate shock, she opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing and why weren't they out there fighting, but he seemed to sense this and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Matthew had rushed to Cindi's aid, aiming his bow and loosing shot after shot, but the scorpion's plates were dense as rock and the arrows deflected without so much as scratching the chitin. Realizing that his arrows were of no use, he started looking around in vain for something he could use against it; he had a small hunting knife hanging from his belt, but what he really needed right now was a sword or a spear, neither of which he was proficient in and both of which were in Ian's possession and he was nowhere to be found.
In desperation, he began picking rocks off the ground and throwing them at the arachnid, aiming for its red eyes that glowed like hot coals in the shadows of the forest. This only seemed to make it angrier and it began shaking Cindi like a ragdoll.
As Emily lay pinned to the ground, four more scorpion mutts emerged from the trees and she tried desperately to scream against Ian's hand holding back her cries. Their tails visibly dripped with venom as they swished through the air like whips with distinct snapping sounds.
It was immediately clear that Matthew wouldn't stand a chance against four mutts and Emily was thrashing wildly against Ian, mumbling pleas for him to help, but he was impervious to her begging. They both knew there was nothing he could do even if he had wanted to.
Several of the scorpions appeared to hold him down while another used its tail barb like a knife, slicing him slowly like a gourmet animal carcass at the butcher. Each slice filled him with poison which caused him to writhe and twitch in pain with the most horrible yowling cries.
And he still he fought with every ounce of strength, beating their shells with his fists and demanding they let Cindi go, as if they could understand what he was saying.
Before the mutts had a chance to finish off their prey and come looking for more, Ian once again had Emily in his arms, one hand still firmly clamped over her mouth, and they were retreating the way they'd come with deliberately placed steps to avoid drawing attention to themselves.
The cannons fired just as they reached the safety of their cave and Emily's legs buckled out from under her as Ian finally set her down, sinking to the rocky floor where she pounded a fist against the ground, weeping and cursing him out with every foul word she knew.