I would like to inform everyone that I will be wrapping this story up soon, however long it takes me to update. I am writing a book of my own that I want to get published and I just have little desire to write this anymore :-/ I'm really excited about this novel though and it's taking up a lot of my time.
However, that doesn't mean that I'm hurrying to get this story over with. It's just getting time for a final run, don't you think? I've chosen my victor and I may or may not do the next Quell. If I do… expect things to be different than usual to spice everything up a bit.
And also, OH MY GOSH SORRY FOR THE MEGA WAIT! I did NaNoWriMo and that was my life all month long, but it's finally over and I won on the twenty-sixth! Fifty thousand words, oh gosh. That's scary just to think about forcing myself to do it again next year…
D12- 18- (Krumr Strongthews)
I watch for a moment, the girl running up to the table. It's a Career. I notch my arrow to the bow but don't let it fly yet. I let her escape and narrow my eyes as the other Careers follow her. She'll be interesting competition later on, if she lives.
Carlyn tugs at my hand and points to a tree. I look to it and see the boy perched in it, thinking he's covered from view when in reality we're covered from view and most of his bottom half is visible to us. I grin at her and then use the arrow I've already ready on my bow, aiming it at him as I run silently toward the boy. Once I get close enough, I let the arrow fly. He falls back from the tree, the arrow having gotten him right in the heart. A cannon fires for him and I laugh delightedly.
"Hush!" Carlyn scolds, smiling. "You'll scare off the prey."
"Ready for the feast?" I ask her.
"Ready," she says, and we run out of the woods.
Everything from then on is an eruption of action. Five more join the party, which means everyone left alive other than the Careers is here fighting the feast. The one who died earlier had to have been the little girl from Four.
I look at the survivors so far and see the faces of two tributes from… Nine, I believe. A girl from five. Allies from two different districts that I can no longer tell. Look at the faces of the people the Capitol has ruined the lives of. I may have no concept of this, and I may not care whether or not these people live or not, but I do know that most value their continuance, value their loved ones. Others have things to cling to where I do not, and while that doesn't hurt me like it should, it's still wrong. I know I should have someone to love, should have something to cling to. But the idea is lost on me.
None of this stops me from smiling happily when the people from Nine step up to the table, near us, and try to smuggle stuff away with the boys from the districts I don't know go at the girl from Five. We go up to them, Carlyn and I, wickedly holding our weapons at ready. Their beady eyes likes that of animals jerk up to us and their hands fly to their weapons. I draw a knife. Figure I'll give them a fight and draw out the fun…
"Ooh, you chose the wrong group to fight, didn't you?" I taunt. "You should've gone after that girl alone. She looks like it'd be easy to pick her off."
"Not so much. I think she just killed one of them," the boy from Nine says conversationally, nodding over to the pair of tributes fighting. It's true. One of them is down on the ground, but the Capitol must be waiting until the feast is over and everyone is cleared out before they sound the cannon for him. "But hey, you seem to know more about this than me. Your axe is pretty bloody there."
"Oh, yeah," I say, looking down at it proudly. "Looks like I forgot to clean it, Carlyn." I look over at her.
She rolls her eyes. "I was going to mention it to you," she says. "You were in a bad mood."
"Hey, this has been a lot of fun, truly, but let's get to killing each other," the girl from Nine says with a shrug. What's she got? A bow. And the boy's got a scythe. They must know that they don't stand a chance, but still both of them stand tall against us, eyes narrowed and lips upturned in smirks like they're both quite confident that they'll get the best of us against all odds. They're cocky at all the wrong times; I'll give them that, though that's not much to give.
The girl's arrow goes flying but my bow is up in a second and I notch my arrow. The boy is leaning back and grabbing something—a sword. How pathetic of him to think that he may actually stand a chance with a better weapon. I snag the girl in the shoulder, purposefully missing anywhere important. She howls in pain and Carlyn pounces on her like a lion delivering the final blow to her wounded prey.
The boy's sword is nothing against my bow and my axe, which I switch between with ease. An arrow to the foot, an axe's cut to the arm, until finally I get bored and I throw my axe at his chest. He's dead almost instantaneously, but still I kneel next to him and grin sadistically. I take my knife and I cut him apart, watching his blood still, making sure he's still alive. I don't stop until he's dead, until I feel his chest and find that his heart is no longer beating.
I turn around for another kill, but everyone is gone. I smile and look at what Carlyn and I have to choose from. We decide to make camp at the feast site. The Capitol, when they are ready, will either take us to the other tributes or take the other tributes to us. Carlyn and I would like a luxurious break with the things the Capitol provided for the feast. We leave briefly after the cannon fire so the bodies can be collected by hovercraft. Five cannons sound. I wonder if the fifth one is the winner of the fight between the other people, if he was wounded so bad that he died, or if it is the Career that the rest of the Careers chased after at the beginning, before the feast even started.
"There were only four bodies," Carlyn tells me. "Five people came to the feast."
"So?" I say. "Someone had to have made it out of the other fight while we were maiming our kills."
"I kind of feel bad," she admits to me quickly, continuing before I can interrupt. I don't though—I hear her out. "I would hate anyone who tore me up so bad. Their parents won't have any more than pieces to see when their kids get back to them."
I shrug. "Screw their parents. Screw it all."
She rolls her eyes. "Don't talk like that, Krumr. It's not good for you."
"You don't get that I don't care if I get out or not," I say. "Nothing to go back to, no one."
"But you're still determined to win," she states. She shakes her head. "I really do hate you."
I shake my head. "No, you don't."
We return to our camp and set up a tent that we find on the feast table, snuggling together inside it for warmth. It gets a bit chilly tonight. We have a lot of blankets and a couple pillows too. It feels so nice to sleep with pillows and blankets again. I had almost gotten used to the luxury of light-as-a-cloud pillows and blankets in the Capitol, but the Games snapped me out of it. I missed it though.
"Wow."
I look down at Carlyn. "What?" I ask.
"Six people left."
I nod. "So what?"
She shrugs. "It's just a bit scary," she tells me.
"You're admitting an awful lot tonight," I groan. "Why don't you just stop for now?"
"That might be best."
"Might be," I agree.
D1- 17- (Daphne Summerfield)
They catch me.
I know the minute that the Careers catch me that I'm dead. I stand no chance against the four of them, all fighting against me. Even idiot Vixen and imbecile Azaleigh won't be persuaded to come fight for me. Their weapons fire down on me, and I only get one good thrash at Vixen. It's effective though. She crashes to the ground and I focus all my attention on this one last kill. Get Vixen out and you can die, Daphne. Get Vixen out and you can see Adelina.
I shove my knife in Vixen's chest and stagger away. Gleam's, Stone's, and Azaleigh's knives all plunge into different points of my flesh, sending agony coursing through me in all directions, swimming around, causing more agony as it dances wildly. I crash to the ground and look up at them. They glance at each other and back at Vixen. Then they run away.
I hear Vixen's cannon a few minutes later along with four others. I must've hit her good.
I'm left waiting for my own death for a long time. I don't know how long it is, but I drift in and out of consciousness. My mind swirls and dips and spins and I feel giddy and sad and most of all I feel pain to degrees I can't describe, fluxing away from me and then startlingly jerking right back to the surface, staring me in the face and taunting me with its agonizing laughter and torturous jabs.
I'm not sad when I feel everything go numb and everything start to fade away. I begin to sing, badly, and laugh and sob as I feel myself dying, and I welcome it. I am relieved. I am leaving. I am…
D1- (Luxuries)
1. Gleam Diode, 18, female. Megalor9
2. Adelina Summerfield, 17, female. CapitolRules
3. Daphne Summerfield, 17, female. CapitolRules
D2- (Masonry)
1. Azaleigh Rommel, 16, female. Araka-chan
2. Beck Ferrari, 18, male. WhyNotDream
3. Stonesia "Stone" Zhunder, 16, female. XOXOFutureFame
D3- (Technology)
1. Forrest Montgomery, 17, WhyNotDream
2. Calypso Oswald, 14, female. WhyNotDream
3. Rylan "Ry" Ashmore, 14, male. the epic bookworm
D4- (Fishing)
1. Vixen Payne, 17, female. jblonde123
2. Nelly Carter, 13, female. Bowserboy129
3. Jackson Brothel, 17, male. Araka-chan
D5- (Power)
1. Anya Saitov, 18, female. the epic bookworm
2. Allegra Ride, 12, female. WhyNotDream
3. Tenne Bradhe, 18, male. BlueYoshGuy
D6- (Transportation)
1. Dante Kyanide, 17, male. Megalor9
2. Cade Allens, 17, male. bijtjen
3. Phoenix Grant, 18, male. the epic bookworm
D7- (Lumber)
1. Decon Crow, 17, male. Bowserboy129
2. Jaelyn "Jae" Nicole Analetto, 15, female. SpunkyFun
3. Damien Andrews, 16, male. Jammerock2000
D8- (Textiles)
1. Damon Grey, 18, male. sportygirl123
2. Dan Axton, 17, male. Jammerock2000
3. Alicia Ludwig, 13, female. the epic bookworm
D9- (Grain)
1. Asher Lightwood, 17, male. Rikachan101
2. Aeris Lockhart, 15, female. Rikachan101
3. Fiona Ryder, 17, female. sportygirl123
D10- (Livestock)
1. Nick DiLaurnetis, 16, male. CallingMeFakeWontMakeYouReal
2. Jak Crenshaw, 17, male. Jammerock2000
3. Leo Rivers, 16, male. WhyNotDream
D11- (Agriculture)
1. Skylar Mitchell, 14, female. Jammerock2000
2. Kayla Baker, 16, female. Jammerock2000
3. Sage Birr, 17, male. the epic bookworm
D12- (Mining)
1. Krumr Strongthews, 18, male. CapitolRules
2. Carlyn Hansen, 17, female. CapitolRules
3. Astrid Levine, 15/16, female. CallingMeFakeWontMakeYouReal