AUTHOR'S NOTES: I apologize for the delay. As mentioned in my Fire Emblem fic as well as on my profile, my rate of posting chapters will be halved for November due to NaNoWriMo. After that, however, I intend to resume my regular scheduling as swiftly as possible. Anyways, here's the next chapter, and there's another death here. Just because Mani died in the bloodbath doesn't mean his partner suffered the same fate.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 17: The Zip-Line Saboteur

The career pack managed to sleep peacefully for most of the evening. The platforms moved back and forth with little regard to the passage of time or to the sleeping patterns of the tributes, and most of the tributes had not yet memorized their patterns.

However, the one tribute that had memorized all of the movement patterns of this arena's landscapes had capitalized greatly on it, and she knew exactly what she needed to do. She pulled a homemade grenade out of her bag and lobbed it right towards the careers' camp. It exploded with a flash and a loud bang, but the damage done was minimal. It was more supposed to be a noisemaker rather than an actual explosive device anyways. However, it startled all of the careers as well as Ratchet awake, and Sudi taunted them from a safe distance.

"Don't take the bait!" Nazir warned, grabbing a set of throwing knives, "she's trying to goad us."
"Actually, I'm trying to shoot you." Sudi replied, pulling out a bow and nocking an arrow. Gabriela responded so swiftly that had Sudi not bent over backwards in a difficult limbo-style pose, she would have been decapitated on the spot. Naturally, she took off running.

This was enough to goad all of the careers into pursuing her before she could recover and actually fire an arrow, and so Sudi continued to flee. She also faced a bombardment of knives, arrows, and other projectiles including stones as she raced for her trap location. A lot of what would (or would not) happen next depended on how well Sudi's timing was. She zigzagged across the arena to buy herself a little time, but kept her bearings so that she knew which way to run. She felt a light rumbling from the north after a few minutes, and she beelined it immediately for the cliffs, knowing what it meant. Her stamina reserves were still plentiful, but the swifter careers were gaining on her. She disappeared from view, grabbing a thick piece of cloth she had in her bag and throwing it around a rope that she had tied between two massive cliffs. She sailed down it like a zip line, and then disappeared into the trees on the opposite side of the cliff, waiting for the careers to either give up or for them to take her bait.

Fortunately for her, they managed to take her bait, and they rode the platform towards her. Right as their platform neared Sudi's side of the cliff, she sprung out of nowhere and rode her zip line back over to the first side of the cliff. Nazir was about to cut the ropes, but Faren jumped ahead of him and hopped onto the zip line. He was about to shout at his comrade, but Faren was gaining on Sudi much quicker than any of them would.

However, Sudi proved to be too fast for him, and when she reached the end of her line, she pulled out a grenade. She was halfway through reeling her arm back to throw it at Faren when a shard of metal whizzed out of nowhere and knocked it out of her hand, where both the shard and the grenade tumbled into the abyss. A small crackle a few moments later indicated that the grenade had gone off.

Faren was nearing Sudi's location at this point, however, and so she reacted with one swift movement, and sliced the rope that he was gliding across the abyss on. She watched his eyes widen in horror for a split second before he fell into the thick forest below. They heard a man yelling, and Faren's voice.

"Hey! I'm still alive!" he called out. The other careers stood perched on one side of the cliff, with Sudi safely on the other side (at least for another hour or two).

"You can't stop me, Sudi!" he shouted, "I'm Faren Dumar, and I'm invin…" he trailed off as there was a rustling in the trees. Faren's confident shouts turned into panicked screamed, and there was suddenly a loud series of crunching noises that sounded like something smashing through the trees. Faren's screams were cut off all of a sudden, and a cannon fired. Sudi used this moment of shock to disappear back into the forest again as the other three careers and Ratchet kind of froze out of lack of knowing how to react to what they just saw and heard.

This cannon was actually what woke Cadence up, and he woke Lucia up to warn her that other tributes were on the move.

"It's either Districts 9, 11, and 12; or it's the careers." He warned, "I don't know who just kicked it though. We'll have to wait for tonight."

"We should get moving though," Lucia suggested, "there's no telling where the others are. The platforms move during the night."
"How do you know?" Cadence looked at her.

"We're close enough to one that I can hear when it moves," Lucia replied, "You couldn't hear it?"
"I… suppose my hearing is not as keen as yours," Cadence admitted as he scratched the back of his neck, "but I digress. You're right—we should get moving."

Cadence was fortunate enough not to run into any hostile tributes, although as he wandered around the arena searching for any signs of other tributes, Lucia got a lead and essentially sniffed out Kilon and Xandra. Both of them were armed, but the stances they took looked defensive, and so Cadence tapped Lucia on the shoulder and whispered to her. Perhaps they could do with a little diplomacy. He would need her help for that though; charisma and diplomacy were not his thing.

"Xandra?" Lucia called out, "Kilon?"

"What is it, '5?" Xandra grunted. Did Sudi kill your allies or something?"
"Do you know who died?" Lucia asked, "The cannon was actually what woke us up."
"So you're not with the careers," Kilon nodded approvingly, "apparently that was Sudi's little work of art, and whatever she did offed one of them—but I'm not sure which one. If you're not with them, that's probably for the best."

"I'd rather us not fight either," Cadence added, "Not while Serendipity and them are still breathing."

"I don't think an 11-5 alliance would last too long," Xandra warned, "but if you want a sort of truce between our districts, we'll let Sudi know as soon as we find her."

"That sounds wonderful right now," Lucia smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't think much about it," Kilon shrugged, "I mean, it'll have to end sooner or later after the careers are gone, but in the meantime, stay safe, Lucia. You're the one that shouldn't be here."
Cadence clenched his fist as the District 11 pair reminded him of that injustice. So they knew it too then; that changed a lot in his eyes, and he suddenly had a great deal of additional respect for District 11 as the two pairs of tributes parted ways. Cadence and Lucia made camp in a quiet part of the arena as the buzz of excitement of the latest death started to die down.

Sudi reunited with Xandra and Kilon about an hour after their encounter with District 5, and for once the painted girl had a cunning smile on her face.

"Faren's out," she slapped a small token into Kilon's hand, "Mani can rest in peace now."

"So who does that leave?" Xandra asked, "I heard Ratchet joined up with them."

"I've heard that too," Kilon added immediately.

"I saw her with them and they weren't trying to kill her," Sudi pointed out, "and so odds are they've joined forces—so we've still got four to deal with."
"Any word on '9?" Kilon raised his eyebrow.

"Haven't seen 'em; have no clue about their alliance," Sudi shrugged, "your guess is as good as mine."

"Damn," Xandra swore, "well, the good news is that we made a temporary truce with District 5 until the careers are out of the way."
"Frankly, I'm not sure who'd want to try and kill Lucia," Kilon confessed, "willingly, at least. She's got this calming aura to her presence."

"Glad I wasn't the only one who felt it," Xandra sighed in relief. "Still, we should get moving. You know what they say about the Hunger Games: Never trust a Ratchet."

With that, the District 11 pair had their next targets already in mind.

Cadence and Lucia made camp for the night as the fog began to set back in, and they waited for the anthem to play before really doing anything else.

Faren Dumar, District 1…

"Sudi took our Faren," Cadence told his partner. "Only 9 tributes remain besides the two of us."

"These are the formidable 9 though," Lucia warned, "We know Sudi and District 11 are still at the careers' throats and vice-versa, but none of us seem to know anything about District 9. Do you think they could be a threat this year?"
"They're usually fodder," Cadence mused as he went off of previous recollections of past Hunger Games, "but for both of them to outlive a dozen other tributes and survive 8 days means that we're not dealing with the usual fodder. Either way, I'll keep you safe."
"Don't worry, Cadence," Lucia smiled as she lay down for the night. "I never had any doubt."
"I know you didn't." he grunted as he curled up next to her. Lucia never doubted him, but Cadence doubted himself and his ability to protect Lucia—and he knew it.