I never knew guns were allowed in the games. The only time I've seen guns were on one specific game where a special banquet would be held, and to be freaking cruel, they set up turrets so the fastest and the cleverest would be able to use it. The automatic fire sets me and Nazz in frenzy, and we head to the nearest house, against George's orders. We lunge inside and barricade the door with a chair.
"Nazz," I stutter. "What's in your pack?"
She pulls out her pack and opens it up. Inside is a map, compass, another knife, which I keep to myself, and a few bags of dried fruit and granola.
"Just a few things to keep us alive." She says. "Nothing much."
"They didn't at least send me a pack of cigarettes?" I complain.
"Come on, Eddy. Do you really need those?" Nazz asks.
"Yeah, I do." I answer.
When sit there in silence for about a few minutes when she finally speaks up.
"When did you start smoking?" she asks.
"I don't want to talk about it." I say, "You wouldn't understand."
"Well, I could try."
I sigh and begin to start my story. Before my brother's games, he used to tease me and pull pranks on me. He was sixteen and I was eight, so I kind of looked up to him. He taught me everything I knew about scamming people, about using street smarts and such and such. Then it was time for his games. He was picked and he joined the Careers. He was ruthless, even though they only had pocket knives. He killed and after three deaths, he seemed to enjoy it. He eventually turned on his allies and killed them all in their sleep. The games left him a heartless, cruel bully, and he neglected me and sometimes he would beat me to make me a 'man'. Being beaten too many times, I eventually hooked with some kids who knew how to get cigarettes. When I first took a drag, I felt happy and calm.
"Oh…I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was like that where you lived." She says.
"It's fine. I'm glad you don't live in the slums. Living middle class must be great." I proclaim.
"It's not for me. When I first went to school, kids used to have a crush on me, even girls. Then we hit middle school, I was being sexually harassed. Boys and girls slapping my butt even the teachers were checking me out. I was very surprised when I saw you not harassing me."
"Hey," I say. "I'm mean, but I do have manners." I give a slight bow and she gives me a giggle.
It isn't long before we start to hear footsteps going across the street. From the sounds of cheering and laughing, I knew it was the Careers. I heard Stone do his guttural howl of a laugh and I look out the window. They were armed to the teeth, swords, machetes and even I saw a gun on the kid Maze's shoulders. They were looking for us; they were looking for 'Peachy' blood.
I grab my knife and my axe and I take cover behind the wall. Nazz begins to crawl forward on her hands and knees towards me. It isn't long before she accidentally crawls over a piece of glass. It stabs through her hand, and I hear a gasp escape her lips. This gives away our position.
Maze begins to open fire on us. Nazz begins to scramble towards me, and she drops beside me. After about five minutes of shooting, it stops. Nazz begins to pull out a red paint bottle.
Under my breath I say, "What are you doing?"
"Saving our lives." She says.
I never knew she was such a great artist. She can give us bullet holes in a matter of seconds. After about ten minutes, I can't believe that they haven't charged our door in; she makes us look dead as possible.
They bust the door in with all their strength. They begin to search the area and find us, lying in a heap on the floor. I try to look dead as possible, trying to conceal my anger.
The girl Shine from District Cash is playing with Nazz. She's using her mouth as a puppet, acting like one of those daytime preschool shows. I begin to lose my cool, Damn sons of bitches shouldn't be using her like that.
My body goes into overdrive, and I lunge up from the wall and squeeze my knife in my right hand. I can't remember much of what happened, but I took out the Cash girl, and I slit Maze's throat. I regain consciousness after I tackle Stone's partner. She kicks me off in my daze and Stone begins to open fire. Me and Nazz run up the stairs of the house and barricade the door. It isn't long before those bastards find where we are. We begin to make plans of an escape by using the sheets from the bed to make a rope.
After ten minutes of constant planning and door banging, we eventually decide to climb out the window with just our hands. Stone was able to bust the door down, spraying and not aiming and using up all of his ammo. We're already out the window by the time he uses up all of his bullets. I drop down to the ground, catching Nazz in my arms.
In a fit of arrogance, I yell "It hurts to be outsmarted by a Peachy is it?"
We both laugh as Stone tries to shoot us with an empty magazine. He finally throws the gun out the window, the barrel breaking.
"This isn't over!" He yells.
"If you want to kill me, I'll be waiting." I yell.
We casually walk away from the yelling and screaming Stone. Feeling confident, I grab Nazz's hand, and wave towards an empty city, and I bet the crowd's eating it up.