Day 2. Early morning
District seven's Bo Heatherfield's POV
It was like I wasn't me. It was like I wasn't in control of my body anymore, it was like some kind of monster had taken over my body and could control all of my movements. I tried to fight back, but it was no use, I just wasn't strong enough to fight whatever was controlling me. All around me were forests of red and black shades, in fact, everything around me were only shades of red and black. Every kind of red and every kind of black you could think of, and more, that was the world around me. Even the rain that was falling for the sky was red and black, like blood and ink. And here I was pinning a girl, I don't know who, to the ground that was layered with grass, sticks, and a thin layer of water that ran though everything in its path. Those were shades of red and black as well. The girl I had pinned down by pressing my knees on her arms with my full weight was fighting me for air, because I had my hands wrapped around her neck and was strangling her with every ounce of strength that my body possessed, that was if the person controlling my body was really me. I watched in horror as red and black ran though our skin and slipped of the edges of our body like water, but I guess it was only the obvious thing for it to do, it was rain.
I watched as the life force was being drained out of the girl with each passing second, her body was being cut off from the oxygen around her and her body was beginning to shut down. I was strangling her so hard that her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. Then where the ends of my fingers were, dark blood began to seep out of her crimson skin before the darkness ran down my fingers, down her body, and into the black and red shades of the rainwater in which she laid on.
I felt powerless against myself as her breathing get weaker, and weaker, and weaker. The fight in her was draining along with her life force. I tried to pry my hands away from her neck before I killed her, but my hands wouldn't cooperate, it was like they wanted to kill that girl no matter what. I couldn't stop my hands from strangling her. I was terrified of those hands. Was I going to kill her? Could I stop myself from killing her before it was too late?
The girl's breathing grew raspier and weaker with every passing second, until she was no longer breathing anymore. I felt the pulse in her neck slowly die before it died completely. Her black blood then stopped flowing from her neck as I finally got my hands off her neck. But it was too late, the damage had been done, she was dead. I lifted my hands up in horror to see my red shaded hands covered in shades of black liquid that ran down my hands and dripped into the black and red water below. No. I had killed someone. I had killed someone. The one thing that I swore I would never do in my life. I felt tears build up in my eyes as my vision blurred the world around me. Why? Why did I do this? I looked back down at the girl that I had killed before she let out a high pitched scream.
My eyes shot open before I lifted my body off the floor before looking left and right quickly. Around me, I saw rotten brown wood with mildly bright yellow sun light seeping though the cracks along with gray dust particles slowly floating carelessly though the air around me. Colour. I looked down to my hands to see that they weren't shades of red or had black blood on them, but they were covered in sweat, as was my entire body. And I felt tears roll down my face as well, they must have came from the dream. But now, I didn't feel like crying from misery, I now felt like crying from joy, I hadn't kill anyone. I gave myself a little smile before I heard a girl's voice scream again. I moved at a cautions speed before going to a vent like cover thing and looked though it to see a girl with medium tanned skin and springy dark bronze curls whimpering as she was doing a sort of strange dance between two long benches while swatting off small, black spiders on her body. She was totally freaking out, and it was funny watching her freak out from such a little thing. But they were all over her, tens of spiders were crawling on her body and she was desperately trying to get them off. Well, I hoped nobody heard that screaming, I didn't want anyone to find this church that I was hiding in.
I found it yesterday while looking for someplace good to hide, and I stumbled across this place and thought that it might have some secret place to hide in. I was right, this church had an attic which was hidden from plain sight. And even though it was covered in dust, cobwebs, and smelled like rotted wood, I didn't mind. It was a good place to hide, it wasn't easy to find unless you knew where to look, and it kept me warm at night. I liked it.
District one's Griffin Holloway's POV
"Well if he wants to hunt on his own let him," said the voice of Lucifer Despar as he, Howl, and I searched the abandoned city for any unlucky tributes that happened to stumble upon our path "see if I care, the three of us are more then a match without that guy anyway." That guy was Tharizdun, he was supposed to hunt tributes with us, but I guess he thought that it would be more fun to do it himself. He may be strong and skilled, how else would he have managed to earn that eleven in training, but he wasn't one of the smart people here. Unlike him, I wasn't going to just run around looking for tributes on my own, there were some sneaky bastards in the games and I wasn't about to get stabbed in the back and die because I thought I could handle them on my own. I was going to stick to the group, for now at least.
We searched the streets, we searched the buildings we thought that tributes might be hiding in, but our search turned out empty handed. And as the heat went up, we were all getting more and more frustrated not being able to find any tributes around here. But how hard could it be to find one of the nineteen tributes left in the arena? Harder then we thought apparently. I felt anger towards the tributes hiding from us, why did they have to make it so hard for us? They'd get what was coming to them sooner or later no matter how much they hid.
After about a couple hours of searching we decided to take a little break out of the sun and heat by taking shelter inside a small, ruined building. The three of us stepped inside the building and took cover in the shade. When we got inside, I felt the temperature fall by maybe ten degrees, it was nice. Inside the building were bits of ruined, wooden walls, chewed up furniture, and green vines that covered parts of the walls. There were a couple of vine crusted windows that offered protection from the sun rays as well. The three of us walked over to a center of the room which had bits of ruined furniture that were covered with dust and what appeared to be either bite or claw marks. I choose to sit on a wooden chair while Lucifer and Howl choose two different, single seat couches. As we sat down on our furniture, gray dust flew up into the air before slowly falling back down.
"Where do you think their all hiding?" Howl asked as she slipped her jacket and bright orange backpack off her shoulders before unzipping it to take out a small bottle of water. I had abandoned my thin jacket and t-shirt back at the camp, I knew that I wouldn't need it during the day.
"No idea," Lucifer answered also taking his jacket and backpack off his shoulders and taking out a bottle of water before twisting the cap off and downing it "but it's so hot out there I'd think that their hiding either inside a building or at some place that you can place your whole body into water, like a lake or something." That made sense, a lot of the tributes out there probably didn't have very much supplies, to say the least water, so they wouldn't want to waste energy out in the baking hot sun. I was thinking the same way, I'd rather not look for them during the sun's peak hours, which were coming up soon. I looked at Lucifer and Howl to see that they were covered in sweat even though it was just barley high noon. I took by backpack off my shoulders before opening it and digging my hand through it until I managed to grab my own water bottle. I twisted the cap off before letting the cool water go down my throat. I felt refreshed as the water wet my dry throat and cooled my head.
"Well if there's a lake or river in this arena it'd probably be in the jungle," Howl announced as I drank my water "so I don't think that the city tributes will be finding mass sources of water anytime soon." Unless they found a stash of water inside a building.
Silence occurred for a bit before I heard
"Do you think Shoney let that girl go?" Lucifer asked. Last night, Shoney came in late, he had a long cut that stretched from his cheek bone to his eyebrow. At the time, I didn't even think of him letting anyone go. But now that Lucifer said that, I was beginning to wonder.
"Who knows," Howl said "and I say it's good Eva's away, she'd have only slowed us down anyway." Or maybe Shoney was too weak to kill even her, if it were me who found Eva sneaking away I would have killed her with either my sword or my mace, or maybe even just my fists, her death would have been one less tribute to worry about. I now felt frustrated at Shoney, he couldn't kill that district four girl, now we might have to go out and look for her instead of her being dead. One more thing to think about, one more thing to plan, one more distraction. I hate distractions. "What the hell?" I heard Howl say questionably. What? What was happening? I looked up to Howl before looking at where she was looking. I looked in the direction she was looking at to see a large group of black rats running across the wooden floor. Their claws hitting the wood making a sliding sort of sound times a hundred. What were they running from? Animals don't just run away from nothing. I leaped off the chair I was sitting on and pulled out my sword ready to strike whatever came from the shadows. My eyes followed the rats until I found where they were emerging from. The rats were running out of a stairway that looked like it lead to the floor below.
I tensed as I waited for whatever was scaring the rats to pop out of the shadows of the stairway. I could take it, I could defeat whatever it was that scared these weak, miserable creatures. Unlike those rats, I could fight back, I wasn't scared. I wished I knew what they were running from, and how many they were running away from, so that I could decide between wither my sword or my mace was better.
Suddenly, I heard a sound that sounded a lot like low thunder. It came from the stairway. I breathed in and out slowly to calm my shaking fingers down. I was a trained warrior, I couldn't be scared, that's what training taught me, fear makes you hesitant. Being hesitant makes you lose focus. Losing focus could be the death of you.
I saw a pair of red eyes appear in the shadows and instantly thought of demons. But I knew better, it was a mutt. It wasn't that tall, but it was taller then the rats that were running away, it was nothing. But then suddenly, more and more red eyes appeared, like red orbs appearing in a night sky. I saw five pairs appear. Ten pairs. Twenty? More? Then I saw a figure burst out of the shadows, a giant black rat that was maybe two feet tall and three times as long with blazing red eyes. I heard something slice though the air to my right before I heard a light thunk and saw blood fly from the leading rat's head. It was probably a throwing knife that got thrown by Howl, she was wearing a hunting vest that could hold nine throwing knives on her chest. As that one dead rat fell, several alive ones ran up to replace it's spot. I now wished that I had chosen my mace, it would have been a much better weapon for this situation.
One of the faster rats ran ahead of the group and closed in on me. I saw it close the distance between us before leaping towards me baring it's big buck teeth at me. I swung my sword at the rat's head as it was airborne, my sword easily found it's target and sliced it's head off at the center of the neck. Rat blood splashed on me as it's head and body went to either side of me. The blood was warm and kind of disgusting, but I didn't let it distract me, I knew that distractions were bad, especially in moments like this.
"Holy hell!" I heard Lucifer shout to my side "we can't fight all that!" Speak for yourself, I could handle these pests.
"We have to get out of here!" I heard Howl shout as I kicked a rat mutt that had worked it's way to my feet before stabbing one a little further away. I twisted my sword before pulling it out of that one rat, and swinging it horizontally to slice five giant rat skulls in rapid succession. "Griffin! Come on! Let's get out of here!"
"No!" I shouted back to Howl. I wasn't about to lose to a bunch of rats, I wouldn't allow it, I was better then these rats. I was a human, they were an animal. I was stronger, smarter, and way better trained then a bunch of stupid rats.
"If you stay you die!" Howl shouted as I kicked a giant rat's chin so hard that it started to do backflips in midair. I might have thought it was funny any other time, but not now. And I wasn't going to run away from rats. To run away was like losing, and I wasn't going to lose to these stupid little bastards!
Day 2. Mid-Afternoon.
District three's Nessa Christine Johnston's POV
It was bad luck that we got a backpack with nothing in it, it hurt our survival rate. But earlier today, Max thought of something smart, or at least something kind of smart. He found a three foot long piece of thin rebar that had a good sized piece of concrete stuck on one end of the pole making it look like some kind of hammer or club, depending how you look at it. It seemed a little too heavy for him, but we didn't really have anything better to defend ourselves with at the moment. At least now we had a chance if we encountered another tribute trying to kill us.
"What are we going to do about food?" Max asked me as we walked down the ruined streets "we only have that bag of nuts and that's it. We also don't really have a good weapon to hunt with or have any rope to use as traps." I was thinking the same thing, later today, one of us, or both of us, would consume that single bag of nuts and we'd be left with an empty bottle, and that worried me, we'd be facing starvation and dehydration. I felt useless without any kind of rope with me. If I had some rope with me, I could make a trap or two and maybe catch something to eat. But we didn't have any rope, or wire, or anything.
"I don't know," I told Max sadly "I don't know." Max turned to me and smiled before saying
"Well, we'll think of something. We will think of something. Or something will come to us, which ever comes first." Hopefully something will come of us, and soon, we wouldn't survive long with what we had right now. We had to find something, anything that could aid us. But Max could be right, we could find something that could help us, who knows, maybe we'll find a store full of supplies.
We joked around for a bit while walking the streets to take our minds off of how thirsty we were when we both looked up. I then stopped dead in my tracks and I gasped out in horror when I saw what was in front of us. My blood seemed to freeze as I looked at the hulking figure standing about twenty feet away from us. I took a step back as Max seemed to step forward and give me cover from the monster in front of me. But even with Max in front of me, I felt fear grip every part of my body while filling my mind with terror. I wanted to run away, but my feet were frozen in place.
"Well hello there," the collector said to us as he flashed his sharp, pointed teeth at us "going somewhere, somewhere, somewhere, somewhere?" No, he had found us, why, out of all the tributes here, did we have to run into him? The psychopathic murderer that was the worst thing that a human being could be. We didn't stand a chance against him, I knew that for a fact. Tharizdun took a single step towards us and I already felt as if we were in more danger then we already were. "Come to me little girl." He calmly commanded to me while still flashing that pointed teeth grin at us and holding out his right hand like he was a parent going to hold a child's hand.
"I'll stop him." Max told me. What!? No! We have to run! You can't fight him! We have to run!
"Max no!" I shouted too late. Max had already started to run towards Tharizdun holding out his rebar club ready to strike. I reached my hand out to grab Max, to try and stop him from doing the stupid thing that he was about to do, but he was too fast, and I was too slow, to stop him. Max ran from my reach and closed in on Tharizdun before swinging his rebar club with all his might and yelling at the tribute he was attacking. Max swung as hard as he could, he swung like a man on a mission, but even with all that effort, Tharizdun easily caught the concrete part of the rebar club in one mammoth left hand like Max had thrown him an apple. Max reacted in shock and just stared at Tharizdun dumbly taking in what just happened. I saw Tharizdun smile wickedly before he thrust his left hand forwards and smashed the broken concrete into Max's face. Max's body reacted by falling to the ground like a sack of rocks. His body landed on the street with a thud as he held his face in pain while moaning loudly. The collector threw the rebar club away with ease while looking at Max with his sharp green eyes that were filled with violence.
The collector walked up to Max's downed body before he had time to recover. When he was standing right next to Max's body, he lifted up a giant foot and gave a powerful stomp to Max's stomach. I covered my mouth as I screamed. When his foot connected with Max's body, Max reacted by crying out in pain while his arms and legs flew into the air from the sheer force of the stomp. His limbs barley reached the ground when the collector lifted the same foot up and stomped on Max's stomach again sending his limbs back into the air. Tharizdun then stomped on Max's stomach a third time. A fourth time. A fifth time. I saw blood then shoot up from Max's mouth as I heard him give out a sickening cough. Seeing Max's frail body being attacked by the collector's powerful stomps and seeing blood being coughed from his mouth, I wouldn't be surprised if some of his internal organs were badly damaged. It was horrible, yet, I couldn't look away.
The collector stared at him like a predator does to it's prey. Max then started to give out painful cries as his body registered the pain that was delivered to it. Max only got hit six times, but it seemed enough to put him out of commission for a long while. Right now, I just wanted all of this to stop, I didn't want Max to be pushed around like that. I saw Max painfully roll to his stomach and start to feebly crawl away from his attacker. But Max barley made it a foot when the collector kicked him in the chest causing him to cry out in pain again before being rolled onto his back. Tharizdun then looked down on his helpless victim and smiled at him before lifting his foot up above Max's face. Max lifted up his arms to block the foot that came crashing down on his face so hard that I swore that I could feel it on my face. I covered my eyes and looked away before running away from the battle field. As the cannon fired, I only caught a glimpse of Max's face when Tharizdun lifted up his boot, but even that was too much for me. Max's face was completely flattened. When Tharizdun's hiking boot smashed into Max's head, the bones in his cheeks and nose as well as some of his teeth got sent into his head while bits of skull shrapnel got sent into his brain. No blood came out of his head, but the internal damage was much worse then it looked on the outside.
I didn't look back as I ran away from Max's killer, not even once, and I felt sick about it. I didn't help Max, all I did was stand around and watch him get killed. But I didn't want to see how close he was to me, I didn't know if he was close or far, but the sound of steel toed boots clicked behind me so loudly that I thought that he was right behind me, close enough to grab me at any moment. But if he was that close he would have grabbed me without hesitation, so I was safe, for now.
I ran until I got tired, which wasn't that far away from where I started, all I did was run around the corner and run into the first open building to my right. I ran into the ruined building that had grass growing from some parts of the ground and vines hugging the walls. I ran in and quickly slammed the door before desperately looking for a place to hide. There was a long and high, counter and table combination thing that I could hide behind on the left side of the room, but Tharizdun would only need to simply look over the top of the table to see me behind it. And if he looked in the huge mirror that was hanging on the wall behind the long table at the right angle, he'd be able to see me. There were other tables that were smaller and rounder, like normal tables on the right side of the room. They'd offer some protection from Tharizdun's attacks if I used it as a shield and if he decided to use his fists, legs, that seven inched knife that was clipped to his belt, or the two machetes that were also attached to his belt. But it would be useless if he used that mace of his that was hanging on his back. The mace had no spikes or anything on it, it was just a blunt, bludgeoning weapon, but he could use it to smash the table in two. I didn't like my chances with either option.
I looked around room to see that this was the only room, it was a single story building. I couldn't go upstair to hide seeing as there were no upstairs. I looked around the room again to see that there were several closets scattered though out the building. I could hide in one of them. It wasn't that good of a hiding space, but it was the best option I could see here. I quickly sprinted to the closest one to me, which was the second last from the left, and used the last of my energy to open one of the two closet doors and close it. As soon as I heard the click of the closet door closing shut, the entrence doors of the building opened loudly as the collector almost seemed to literally rip the rotten doors off. I gave a little shriek terror, but luckily, the sound of crashing doors drowned out the sound of my shriek. I then held my breath and tried not to move as Tharizdun walked into the building and started to walk around the single room looking for me. Though the thin, vertical hole that separated the two doors, I watched and heard Tharizdun take slow, heavy steps around the room looking for me. I saw him walk over to the long table on the left side of the room before peeking over the counter seeing nothing. I'm glad that I decided not to hide there. I heard him huff loudly before turning over to the right side of the room. He walked over to the small tables, stopped near them, and examined them for a second before kicking one over with his boot causing a loud thud as the table hit the ground top first. He then did that with the rest of the tables causing a pointless ruckus. He looked like an angry child, but I was in no laughing mood right now. I was terrified. He kicked each and every table before decided to do something else.
I watched the collector pace around the room with heavy footsteps like a hungry animal thinking of how to catch it's prey. Then unexpectedly, the collector walked up to the closest that was at the far right of the room, and punched it so hard that his right fist went though the wood. I almost gasped at his actions, but I covered my mouth with my hands to prevent any sounds from coming out. I then watched him removed his now bloody hand from the inside of the closet before looking inside though the hole he created. While he was looking in the closet, I thought of how mentally unstable he was, after all, he punched the closet, even if it's wood was thin. He didn't seem to see anything interesting as he pulled his head away from the closest before going over to the next closest to his left and smashing another fist sized hole in it.
He repeated the procedure each time, he punched a closet, he looked inside, then moved on when he didn't find anything. Soon, he was at the closet I was in. I heard his boots hit the ground directly in front of me, stopping for a second, before hearing and seeing a fist smash though the closet I was in. The only good news I could say was that he punched the right side of the closet and I was on the left side. I stayed as quiet as I could and as still as I could, but I was regaining my energy back and it was hard for me to stay still for long. I watched the bloody fist slip out of the hole before light shone in for a few seconds before darkness appeared. I knew at that moment, Tharizdun was looking inside my closet, looking for me. I stayed quiet, I tried to stay still, hoping that he wouldn't see me. I was sweating from fear, I felt like trembling, I wanted to scream, but I didn't, I couldn't, if I did he'd find me for sure. I was worried that he'd find me, worried that I'd move, worried that I'd make a sound, and most of all, worried that he'd find me.
It felt like forever, but he eventually leaned away from the hole he had punched in the closet. I heard his footsteps go to my right before stopping before I heard the sound of wood breaking. I continued to hold my breath as silence hung in the air and all I could hear was my own heart beating fiercely against my chest. I forced myself to keep quiet and still, even thought it was hard for me to do. I had to keep still and quiet, otherwise he'd find me, and he wouldn't just kill me, he'd do other, terrible things to me.
I felt myself shaking from being so quiet and still for so long, I don't think I've ever been this still in my life. And for so long too. It seemed to last a lifetime before I heard the collector give out a loud sigh of frustration before hearing his heavy boots start to hit the grassed ground as he passed me before his steps became quieter and quieter. When I thought it was safe to breathe again, I let out a sigh of relief, he hadn't caught me. I was filled with joy, he hadn't found me. I was safe again.
Suddenly, a loud crashing sound came from in front of me. I screamed in fear and shock as I saw a bloody fist only inches from my head. I then watched the bloody fist cut itself on the pointed ends of the wood as it slipped out from the hole it created.
"There you are." I heard Tharizdun growl from outside the closet. No. How had he found me? He wasn't here a few seconds ago. Had I let out my breath too early? But I heard him exit the building. Hadn't I? I saw a boot smash though the center of the two doors sending bits of broken wood flying all around the boot before it retracted out with a crunching sound. Suddenly, a flood of light hit my eyes and blinded me. Did he rip off the door? I covered my eyes while feeling something grab my shirt. I then felt my feet leave the ground before something hard hit the back of my head. I shouted as pain rushed into the back of my head. I felt my eyes start to water as more pain around the back of my skull came in. What had I hit? A wall? I looked up, and though blurred vision, I saw Tharizdun walking towards me. Terror, had taken over my body again as I felt tears flow down my face.
District three's Zap "Tharizdun" Philistone's POV
That little girl thought she could hide from me? Well, she almost did. She almost succeeded, but just as I was ready to exit this building I heard someone breathing. I followed the breath back to a closet before finding her in it. I ripped the door open, grabbed her, and threw her at the edge of the long table where a loud thunk occurred.
She was holding the back of her head and crying. It must have hurt. But what did I know about pain, I never felt any. I reached back and grabbed the mace which was strapped to my back and pulled it out of restraints. I pulled it out slowly, relishing every moment of this. After all, nobody was going to stop me like back in the district.
I pulled my mace out all the way and was ready to use it when my little district partner seemed to regain her senses. She started to slowly back away from me, but she didn't get far after I pressed my right boot on her chest and held her in place. I turned my eyes to one of her legs and looked at where my striking point would be. I couldn't have my victims run away from me. I choose the spot that I guessed was the most effective. I lifted up my mace and smashed the blunt end on her kneecap. A sickening crunch and a scream of pain filled my ears with pleasure. This was nothing like back in the district, back then, I had to find some way to keep them quiet so that their screams wouldn't attract attention. But this, this was easy, all I needed to do was walk up to them and crush. I quickly turned to her other leg and lifted my mace up once again before slamming it down and destroying her other kneecap. Another sickening crunch. Another wail of pain. It was wonderful. But the best was still to come.
I lifted my boot off her little chest knowing that she couldn't go very far very fast now that I had destroyed her kneecaps. I placed my mace back onto my back, satisfied with my work. This was almost a work of beauty if I say so myself. Easy too. Almost too easy it seemed. I didn't have to worry about anyone finding out, I didn't have to worry about hiding anything, I didn't have to worry about anything. I could do as I pleased whenever I wanted. Just knowing that was the best feeling I ever felt. It was even better then when I successfully got the girls to my house and disposed of their bodies after I was done with them. It was even better then when I had killed my parents and two brothers by burning down the house eight months ago. Heh. I'm glad I killed them, if I hadn't killed them, I wonder how many of the girls I kidnapped, raped, and killed would have never meet their end by me. Yes, this was truly the best feeling ever.
I grabbed my little district partner by the shirt, lifted her up, and slung her over my right shoulder. I heard her crying for mercy. I head her cry to me to not do anything to her. I heard her crying for her mom and dad. Well I'll tell you little girl, there's no mercy here. There's also no mom and no dad here with you now. Just me.
A/N: Wow, I didn't expect this chapter to be this long, ah well. Hope you enjoyed. Got pictures for Steel, Holly, and Sophie.
Death list:
19th place: Max Starling. Crushed by Zap/Tharizdun