Chapter 19: "A Test of Alliances"


July 7

Day One of the Games


Walking was challenging for Alex.

The kid from Six had dealt him some serious damage, and he was having a hard time breathing when everything hurt, but he was doing his best to keep up with Kitty as she got them both away from the Tesseract and toward the safety of the rocks and arches. He was much taller than her, even at thirteen, so it wasn't like she could just carry him, either. Not well, anyway. So, he just kept going, putting one foot in front of the other and trying to breathe and lean on Kitty and … and … all at once, he couldn't anymore.

He must have passed out at some point, because the next thing he knew, he was lying down, and they were much further into the rocks an arches than he remembered them being.

"Just rest," Kitty advised when she heard him starting to stir and put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from rising. "I've got this."

He frowned and looked around, though if he tried to move too much, that was just… not good. He leaned his head back against the rocks and tried to take in a breath, but it wasn't very deep, and that just had him frowning that much harder. Why did breathing hurt?

Kitty bit her lip when she saw the way Alex was cringing. "I don't know how much damage he did, but … I'm going to stick with you," she swore.

He shook his head lightly from side to side before he tried to peer around her. "Just us?" he asked in more of a wheeze than anything, and it hurt.

"Yes. And don't try to talk too much," she said with a frown. "I have some medicine I picked up — but I'm not sure what it'll do for you."

He matched her frown and watched her dig through the small pack. "Water?" he asked, careful not to try to talk too loud as he realized for the first time how thirsty he was. He wasn't sure that was a good thing, since they hadn't exactly been out for very long, but he definitely could feel a split lip from how dry he already was.

"A little bit — be careful with it," she said as she tried to help him sit up enough to drink, using the rocks to prop him up a bit. "I'll find some more as soon as I'm sure you're not going to do something stupid like die on me."

He gave her half a smile. "Why would I do that?" he croaked out in an attempt at humor.

"Because you are contrary and spiteful — and I can see you waiting until I turn my back," Kitty said with a frown. "So just don't. You're not allowed to leave me alone here, Alex Summers."

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh my god. Do not 'ma'am' me. That is so wrong."

He just smiled a bit crookedly. "So bossy though," he teased tiredly.

"Shut up or I'll bust you out on national television on who your big crush is," she teased. "I know things, Alex."

He gave her a look for just a moment before he shook his head and leaned back. "Too tired to argue," he muttered, and it was true, because he could feel his eyelids drooping.

"That's good for you," she said with a smile. "Go ahead and rest. I'll keep watch for you."

"Thanks," he muttered, letting his head fall. He was asleep before he had even really finished saying his thank you.

Kitty looked outright worried as soon as she saw that Alex had fallen asleep that quickly. She knew that Six had gotten some nasty hits on him … but the truth was, she was half afraid to look at the damage. The last thing she wanted to do was fall apart on him if he was dying. She didn't want him to be scared. He was thirteen, after all.

So instead, she just … tried to make him comfortable, knowing full well that if he was that badly injured internally, there wasn't a thing she'd be able to do for him in the arena.


"Billy Kaplan, you are an idiot," America told her district partner.

The two of them had found a good spot in the rock face, a little hidden cave that Billy had been able to spot, almost like he'd wished it into existence when they had been out in the sun for the past couple of hours. And the heat and total lack of water was doing absolutely nothing for either of their moods.

"Takes one to know one," he shot back with a grumble.

She rolled her eyes at him as she started to unpack the heavy bag, though she didn't know what much of it was for. She'd been hoping for ropes, knives, something useful, but instead, she just found a small sheet and a tube, along with a water bottle. The climbing kit, she supposed, could be helpful too, but all she saw at this point was a whole lot of heavy crap that she'd been carrying for hours, and none of it was going to help her kill the kids between her and putting Billy back in Twelve.

Billy rubbed absently at the dried blood on his forehead as he watched America glare at their supplies before he slowly started to nod. "I know what this is," he said. "I read about them."

America glanced up at him in surprise before she shoved the bag's contents his way. "Then go right ahead, bookworm. This is your department. I'm going to go see if I can find a good lookout spot so we don't get killed in our sleep by what's left of the Careers."

"You think they'll come after us?" Billy asked with a small frown, but America was already climbing out of their hidey hole to play lookout.

Billy shook his head at his friend. He knew that her heart was in the right place and she was just looking out for him, but she was being paranoid and overbearing, and he could do a lot more than she seemed to think he could.

Like get water, for example.

That's what the supplies in the bag were for. He recognized it — he just had to set it up outside where they would have the best chance of getting water. When night fell and the air started to cool, the condensation would gather on the sheet, and it would drip into the tube. All he had to do was set it up on the ground, attach the water bottle to the system, and then wait. And in the morning — voila — they would have water, like magic.

Billy busied himself with getting everything set up, already looking forward to how good that water would taste. He was used to the humid mountains back home in Twelve, and this desert air was already stealing not only his sweat but his energy. Being this hot all the time was tiring, and they'd only been in the arena for a few hours.

They had to make it through several days in this place, and the prospect was, Billy had to admit, incredibly daunting.

When America got back, she had cut her khaki pants down to shorts to deal with the heat, and he could see the strings where she'd torn the line, though he declined the offer of the same treatment for his own clothes, instead opting to show her the system he'd set up to collect water overnight.

"Maybe it'd be better if we slept through the hottest part of the day, you know — come out in the evening and night?" he offered as he watched her methodically tearing her pants into strips.

"You planning on becoming a creature of the night?" she teased before she tossed him one of the strips. "Tie that around your head. This place looks ripe for sandstorms, and the last thing you need is more dirt getting in that head of yours." She had to smirk at him as she said it, and he stuck his tongue out at her.

"I'm just saying — the sun is totally draining. And we don't want to meet up with anyone when we're tired out just from walking around," Billy pointed out.

America tipped her head to the side to consider him for a moment before she nodded. "Alright. We'll start doing that tomorrow. Unless you feel like taking a nap right now?" She asked it in a teasing tone, but he could tell that she was also checking to make sure he wasn't hurting any worse from his head injury.

He shook his head, sighed and shrugged. "I think I'm still a little keyed up from that fight," he admitted.

"Yeah, me too," she said, nodding her agreement before she leveled a finger his way. "You just about gave me a heart attack, you idiot."

"Was that before or after the purple-haired girl told me to run?"

At that, America paused and turned his way. "She what?"

"She … told me to run. Get away from the mess." He shrugged a bit as he double checked his work.

"She must not have seen you totally take down her brother before I got there," America said, and there was no mistaking the proud tone in her voice for a moment as she smiled Billy's way before she nodded to herself. "What'd she do that for, anyway? She's a Career. You're lucky she didn't take your head off."

"I don't think she's like the other Careers," he said. "She and her brother were mostly just watching out for each other — from the sound of things."

"If that's the case, then I'm almost sorry I did her brother in," America muttered. "Only he was fighting you, so I'm not actually sorry."

"You must have heat exhaustion. Did you actually say the word 'sorry'?"

"Twice. I know — I'm probably delusional," America said with just the slightest of smirks.

"You're going to get yourself killed," he pointed out.

"That's the plan," she said with an easy shrug. "Right before I get you home."

"Plans never work in here, America," he said in an almost tired tone. "You know that."

"Says the bookworm with plans for everything, including how to get water and when to travel," America countered, sounding completely unconcerned — though Billy couldn't help but wonder if she was thinking the same thing he was, that their friend Kate had made it all the way to the Final Four on plans that she never got to realize.

He let out a breath and decided to ignore it, instead pointing out to America, "These are keeping alive plans, not 'big picture' plans."

"In here? 'Keeping alive' is a big picture plan," she pointed out before she crossed over in a few strides to readjust the way he'd tied the fabric around his head. "Why are you arguing with me on this? I thought you'd be happy about going back to Teddy, you dolt."

"I just don't want you to do anything stupid," he said, wincing when she tied the knot and then knocked him in the back of the head for arguing with her.

"Worry about your own stupid decisions, like running into the Tesseract, you moron," America shot back as she gathered up the climbing kit to put it back in the bag, since neither of them were going to use it anytime soon.

"Yeah, remind me again where you got the shiny brass knuckles from," he countered.

She glared at him and rolled her eyes before she started to roll up a long strip of fabric to use it to tie her hair back. "You just stay here and take a nap. I'm going to see if I can track down anything edible in this wasteland," she informed him, completely ignoring the brass knuckles jab even as she readjusted them with one hand on her way out of the cave.

Billy shook his head as he found himself alone once more. "Sure, America. I'm the idiot," he told the now-empty rocks and sand.


Scott, Kamala, and Clara had eventually found a cliff face with an overhang that provided shade, shelter, and enough of a hiding place that they could consider it a decent spot to set up camp — though it was obvious the arena itself was designed to keep the tributes more out in the open than the previous year, so they would almost have to fight each other. There wouldn't be many places to hide, which meant the tributes wouldn't need to look too hard to find each other. So, the first thing the little group did when they set up was establish a watch so that none of the others could sneak up on them.

While Clara was finding a good vantage point, then, Kamala and Scott went through the two bags he'd grabbed from the Tesseract, and they were both pleasantly surprised when they realized that they actually had some useful stuff in there.

There was plenty of rope, which tickled Kamala, since she'd spent lots of time at the ropes and traps station with Miles, so she actually felt like she could contribute to the alliance. And in addition to the knife Scott had given her to hold at the Tesseract, there were a couple shiny daggers in one bag, along with a half-full water bottle, a cooking set, and six protein bars.

"We're still a little short on weapons," Scott said almost to himself, knowing the one knife for Kamala wasn't going to be enough — and wishing he had a set of throwing knives, since that was what he'd practiced with. "And this water isn't going to last us long either."

"We can find more water," Kamala said with a little wave. "And I can make traps!"

"I don't see anything here that will help us get more water," Scott said with a frown as he finished checking every single pocket and crevice in the pack, in case anything was hidden in there.

"Did you check Clara's?" Kamala asked.

"Not yet," Scott admitted, already reaching for the pack, and the frown turned into a bit of a smile when he opened Clara's pack and found that there were plenty of medical supplies in there. Bandages, antiseptic, even a small tube of burn cream. "Well, that's good."

Kamala leaned over his shoulder and let out a little low whistle, breaking into a grin. "And we don't even really need it," she said, before she glanced around the area. "Dangit. No trees. I need to knock on wood or something after that."

Scott couldn't help but smirk at that as he put the supplies back in the packs, though he left the rope out so that Kamala could start working with it. She was already determined to make traps or snares so that she could be "part of the team."

"You're already part of the team," Scott pointed out as he watched her determinedly tying knots.

"Not like you guys," Kamala argued, the slightest of frowns tugging at her expression. "I don't think I could kill anyone, not really," she added quietly.

Scott had just opened his mouth to tell her that he'd make sure she didn't have to — but he didn't get the chance when instead, he was distracted by Clara's entrance.

"How did we do, guys?" Clara asked as she slid down the path a bit.

Kamala grinned at Clara, waved, and gestured at the bags. "Pretty darn well, no matter what Scott says. We have cooking stuff, rope, some water, some food, and plenty of medical supplies. We're set."

"Not much in the way of weapons, though," Scott told Clara. "Two daggers and a knife."

"Well, I have staves," Clara pointed out. "Kinda short, but better than nothing."

"There's not much out here that we can use to make more," Scott said. "So this is what we've got — unless we want to start hurling rocks."

"Something will turn up," she said with a little wave. "Don't stress over it."

"I'm actually not too stressed," Scott assured her with a small smirk. "I know we did better than a lot of other kids could hope to. Grabbed the right bags, I guess." He directed the smirk Kamala's way, and she broke into a huge grin at the encouragement.

"And we have one less Career to worry about too," Clara pointed out. "And I don't think they'll be outright looking for us after that."

"You killed Amora, then?" Kamala asked in a quiet voice, her eyes wide.

"No," Clara said with a little shake of her head. "But I did kill her ugly boyfriend. So they don't have the big guy backing them up."

"That's most of their muscle," Scott said, starting to smile Clara's way at the news.

"Then he shouldn't have been stupid enough to tangle with the girl that routinely wrestles with her big brothers, huh?"

"Guess not," Scott had to agree, and Kamala just stared at Clara for a long moment.

"Thanks for rescuing me, by the way," the younger girl squeaked out at last, very quietly.

"Hey. We're in this together, right? That's how it works," Clara said with a little crooked smile.

Kamala returned the smile almost shyly as she nodded, then took a deep breath. "So… are we going to try to find the others? Like Scott's brother or Miles or... ?"

At that, the encouraging sort of smirk Scott had been giving Kamala died entirely, and he let out a breath. "I don't know which way Alex went," he admitted quietly.

Kamala quickly reached over and covered Scott's arm with her hand. "That's alright," she promised. "We'll find him no problem. He's probably looking for you."

"He has a lousy sense of direction," Scott told her with a minute smirk."That's how he ended up in Nine, after all."

"Then I guess we'd better find him before he wanders the totally wrong way," Kamala decided.

"Let the dust settle from the bloodbath," Clara said as she slid into a seated position. "Move when the temperature drops."

"We'll wait and see whose faces are in the sky before we head out," Scott suggested. "Better to know who we might run into — and better if we're not looking for … well…." He trailed off before he cleared his throat. "It's just better if we know."

"Sounds like a plan, oh, fearless leader," Clara teased.

He raised both eyebrows her way. "What? Don't call me that," he said, shaking his head.

"Why not? That's what you are, isn't it?" she asked with a smile.

"If I was, you'd listen to me," he shot back with a smile to match. "So I don't think I am, somehow."

"Well in all fairness, you haven't asked me to do anything," she argued.

"Alright then," he said, seeming to take it as a challenge. "Clara, why don't you help Kamala with her traps, and I'll take a watch while we wait for nightfall?"

"That actually sounds like a fine plan," she said with a smirk. "If you follow the trail up to the left, you'll stay hidden."

"All six feet of me?" he had to ask with a teasing grin, gesturing with one hand.

"I think so," she replied.

"I guess I'll just have to go find out," he said as he started up the left side of the cliff.

Kamala watched him go for a moment before she smirked at Clara. "I can leave if you want me to," she teased. "I could be, I don't know, trying out my traps or something."

"Don't be ridiculous," Clara said. "We're a team. We work as a team. If you want to set some traps, I'll go with and watch your back."

"You're totally missing the point here," Kamala laughed.

"Is there a point to miss?" Clara said with a distinctly Scott-like expression on her face.

That, of course, just had Kamala laughing that much harder. "I don't even know. It's hard to tell. But it's funny either way," she admitted.

"Okay, so what were you getting at?" Clara said with a laugh.

"I'm just saying if I was talking to a boy like that — well, except maybe Bruno, but he doesn't count — then Aamir would be having fits about my honor," Kamala laughed, shaking her head. "And I'm only thirteen."

Clara blinked at Kamala for a moment before she made a dismissive sort of motion. "Well, that's not even an issue, since he is so not even thinking that way," she replied.

"Well, I think he's cute," Kamala said decisively.

"Are you trying to set me up, matchmaker?"

"Uh, no. Not in the Games. I'm just making observations here," Kamala said quickly, holding both hands up.

"Did you want me to set you up?" she teased. "Seeing as he's cute and all."

"No," Kamala said, shaking her head harder. "I'm just… pointing out the obvious."

"Uh-huh." Clara shook her head at the younger girl, hardly able to believe that they were only hours into the Games and she was already on that subject. "Besides, even if we weren't in the Games, it would be a dead subject."

"Because your brother would kill any boy you ever dated?" Kamala asked, then bit her lip, seeming to realize that it might be a touchy subject.

"You want to guess how many dates I've gone out on at all?" Clara replied with her hands on her hips.

"Probably as many as me, which is none, but my brother is just overprotective, not… Victor Creed."

"My brother … is a pain. And he has a terrible sweet tooth that no one knows about." She smiled Kamala's way. "Even monsters have weaknesses."

"That's how it is in the books too," Kamala said, her eyes lighting up with a smile. "Like a chink in a dragon's armor, or Achilles' heel — that sort of thing." She grinned widely. "Glad to know it's not just fairy tales."

Clara couldn't help but smile at Kamala's intractable optimism. "Come on, let's let our fearless leader know what we're up to. We can be good girls — just setting death traps. No room for hanky panky anywhere."

"Are you going to call him that the whole time?" Kamala asked.

"I might. He doesn't like nicknames, I've been reliably told," Clara said.

"Then… I think I'll have to call him that too," Kamala decided with a troublemaking sparkle to her gaze before she handed Clara some of the rope she was working with to properly booby trap their little hideout.


Miles was getting tired, but he and Gwen were almost to the top of the rocky cliff, so he didn't say anything. Which was more than he could say for the last half hour or so of climbing with Gwen, but she had been exceedingly nice and hadn't complained about his complaining, and he was grateful for that.

Gwen cleared the top of the ridge first and then turned around to give Miles a hand up, pulling him over the top before both of them simply collapsed onto the sandy, dirty ground to catch their breath.

"Remind me," Miles panted out, "whose idea it was to go up higher than everybody."

"Yours," Gwen replied. "It was your idea."

"Oh yeah." He dropped his head back in the dirt for a long moment and closed his eyes. "At least the sun's going down."

"We should have been climbing after sundown. I can already feel my skin peeling," Gwen said with a frown, and Miles sat up to see that she did, in fact, look pink all around the edges. "I don't usually burn this fast."

"Well, I think we're up higher," Miles pointed out. "And in a desert. And up in some mountains. Did I mention we're up higher? Because I don't usually run out of oxygen this fast either."

Gwen gave him a sidelong glance for a moment before she just had to laugh and shake her head at him. "You're so dramatic."

"No, really. There really is less oxygen up here. It's a scientific fact."

"Is that why you climbed so slow?" Gwen couldn't help but tease him, and he sat up a little straighter, his hand on his heart and his eyes wide.

"I am a perfectly good climber, thank you very much. I'm a Spider-man."

"Who climbs like an elephant."

He shook his head. "You shouldn't say such hurtful things, Gwen Stacy. It's unbecoming to a spider of your station."

She rolled her eyes at him and laid back in the dirt. "Whatever, Miles. You're the one blaming oxygen deprivation for your problems."

He opened his mouth like he was going to keep arguing with her but then seemed to think better of it and down beside her in the dirt, staring up at the sky as it got slowly darker. "Well, the one nice thing about mountains is they hide the sun faster," he pointed out as, in fact, the sun hadn't quite hit the horizon, but the air was already starting to cool down. "Back home, sunset wouldn't be for another hour or so."

"But there would be more oxygen?" she teased.

"Uh, yeah. Obviously." He shook his head at her for a moment before he laughed. "And more trees and places to hide, more food… this place is just…"

"It's supposed to be," she pointed out. "If it was easy, that wouldn't be entertaining."

"Sure it would be. I can catch blueberries in my mouth. Who wouldn't want to see that?" Miles asked with a wide grin.

"24 hours a day?" she asked.

"7 days a week," he agreed, then paused. "Well, I'd want to take off the occasional Tuesday. And maybe on Wednesday I'd catch raspberries instead of blueberries, just to mix it up."

Gwen couldn't help but laugh at him for that one. "Sounds like you have it all planned out."

"Sure do. Too bad for the Capitol they picked a desert instead of a forest, because they could have had the best entertainment ever," Miles agreed fervently as he unzipped his bag to look through the contents and just started to laugh.

"What?" Gwen asked.

"You're not going to believe this," Miles said as he pulled out the dried food in the bag — or, more precisely, dried blueberries. Three bags of them.

"You're kidding me," Gwen said quietly, then quickly started to unzip her bag just to check and make sure there wasn't something equally ridiculous — but hers just had a small folded up tarp that they could use for shelter, she supposed, as well as an empty water bottle.

Miles just grinned crookedly at her before he tipped his head back and tossed a dried blueberry into his mouth.

"You are so ridiculous," she said with a little laugh. "You peeked. You had to have peeked."

"I swear I didn't," Miles said, holding up both hands. "The universe just loves me. That's the only explanation I can find."

She shook her head with a little laugh and leaned back. "You know, if it wasn't for the fact that we were … here? This would be a really pretty place to explore."

"With sunscreen for my overly pink spider friend — and a little more preparation — yeah," he had to admit, looking out over the valley full of naturally-shaped rock formations, which, he had to admit, looked sort of eerie now that the sun was hidden behind the mountains.

Gwen followed his gaze out to the valley. "I wonder how those rocks were formed. Erosion? Kind of wild pattern if that's the case."

Miles had to nod his agreement. "You don't think this place has sandstorms, do you? That many rounded edges…. Sandstorms would totally do that. Right?"

"Um … it might?" She said with her nose scrunched up. "There is enough sand."

"I really, really hope that's not the case, because then when we're up to the top of the mountain… there's not much shelter?" He took a deep breath. "But… if I remember my geography, this isn't really a sandstorm area. But I don't know if that's true when the Gamemakers are messing with it, and I just…. Yeah, that's worrisome. Why are we still talking about this? Why am I still talking about this?"

"You're overthinking things again. Would it help you if I hit you?" Gwen offered.

"Umm, it might, but don't do that, please," Miles muttered, scooting a little further away from her and looking outright relieved when the Marvel anthem began to play through the night air. "Oh, look! A thing to watch that's not me!"

"How will they survive without watching you and your blueberries?" Gwen teased.

"I don't know. It's gotta be a hardship," he laughed, though he wasn't nearly as relaxed as he had been before as he watched the sky. Gwen had tensed beside him as well, and both of them were completely silent.

The first face that was projected up in the sky was, of all things, Brian Braddock. And when Giuletta Nefaria and Skurge were the next up in the sky, both of the spiders were simply taken aback, stunned and unable to come up with anything to say.

If there were that many Careers down already, what about the rest of the kids?

The next face was Jessica Jones from Five, but Miles was downright shocked when the one after it was his district partner's… and then the sky went dark.

Three Careers and two little girls. That… that was not a normal bloodbath death count.

Gwen let out the breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding when she saw that her own district partner was safe, but then she glanced over at Miles, who was still staring up at the blank night sky. "I'm sorry about Monet," she offered quietly, but Miles just shook his head.

"I didn't… didn't really know her," he admitted in a soft whisper. "We talked a few times on the train and stuff, but, not really."

"I'm sorry anyway," Gwen said. "Didn't you say you went to the same school?"

"Yeah. She was ... actually, she was a few grades ahead of me. Skipped a few years. I think they were fast-tracking her to work in the Capitol once she aged out of Reaping," Miles said quietly. "She was really smart."

Gwen reached over and put a hand on Miles' arm. "Want to help me set up the tarp? It's not much, but maybe it'll keep out… giant bugs?" she offered.

"Oh, don't call down the wrath of giant bugs, Gwen. That's just asking for it," he said seriously, and she couldn't help laughing at him.

"Just help me get it set up."