Capitol's Arcane Avalanche's POV
"Nine sixteen," I said as I looked at the red text in the bottom right hand corner of the screen that continued to count the seconds, minutes, and hours that the game had been active. "Do you think they've noticed yet?" I was wondering if either the citizens or the higher ups had noticed that the games had started yet.
"Got a couple phone calls," My brother told me as he continued to watch the live actions of the tributes. "I didn't answer them, they were probably people complaining about how the games had started early and they had missed some of the tributes dying." No surprise there. "Or they might be wondering why the bodies hadn't been removed after they had died." Again, no surprise there.
"Only a couple?" I asked, wondering if he was keeping the number lower then it was. I was expecting at least a dozen.
"There were more," My brother confirmed. "But only a couple that really mattered." That explained a lot. There were some people in the Capitol that woke up before ten in the morning and turned on their T.V to get a re-cap of everything that happened before getting sent into the arena. But for the most part, people tuned in half an hour before the tributes get sent into the arena. Which is why I'm expected us to get over flooded with calls in the next fifteen minutes or so.
"You think he noticed?" I asked, wondering about this one person in particular. There were higher ups that we had to worry about, but he was the only one of interest since he would most likely be the president after this anarchy ends.
"He's one of the people that called." My brother answered. "In fact, I'm surprised that he hasn't arrived now. In fact, I'm surprised that he didn't kick down the door half an hour earlier."
It must have something to do with the fact that I locked the door. He was probably burning the lock down with something as we spoke.
Suddenly, I heard a loud metal slam occur behind me. Must be the door, I thought.
I turned around to see that it had been the door. The door that was the only way into this room, the one that controlled the entire games, the gamemaker room, had been busted open the wrong way. The dead bolt that I had turned was still in the wall while the hinges were destroyed.
In the doorway stood a man in his mid sixties with flaming red hair, hardly an wrinkles on his aging body that reminded me of stretched leather, and an angered expression on his heavily surgical face. He held a heavy battering ram in his hands that I was surprised that he could even lift.
"What the fuck have you two done!" He shouted at us as he walked towards us. "I wake up, turn on my T.V to watch the reviewing of the tributes and some last minute stuff on the games, and I see seven tributes already dead with the dead bodies not even removed from the arena!"
"You missed another death," I calmly told him, not in the least scared of this old man that thought he was superior to me just because he had been father's right hand man. "Drug addict Perla Freuff just got devoured from some reanimated baby mutts."
I saw him get angrier at us before he exploded.
"It's not even ten and one third of the tributes are dead!" He raged. Spit flying out of his bleached white teeth with every word.
"Another one's going to die soon." I told him before pointing to the cameras that featured Dylan Drake running away from Victory Valentine. Dylan was bleeding from the stomach, chest, and back where both Jenriko Florence and Victory Valentine had attacked him. "And maybe one more." I added, pointing to the screen with Tanner Hart pressing his hands on Jenriko's bleeding neck.
"Not only did you start the games early!" He continued like I hadn't even said anything. "There's a dead mentor, dead bodies not being taken away, and a rapist. You two have violated the rules so damn much you'll-"
"We'll what?" I challenged. He missed one of thing things that I did, which was cutting out Victory Valentine and Jeremiah Sentris' tongue so that they couldn't rat me out as easily, but I was going to let him figure that out before telling him that yes, I did do it. "Be sorry? There's nothing you can do to us."
"You two have taken over the gamemakers assignments without being gamemakers. You two have violated the Capitol rules for the Hunger Games. I'll have you two killed."
He talked the words, but he couldn't do anything to us. He might think he could, but me and my brother knew better.
"No you won't." I told him. "If there's one thing missing from the Capitol it's a president, and if there's no president, you and those other dying elders have to have a meeting and fight over who will be president until you either retire or drop dead." He looked shocked that I was telling him this. He knew it of course, but me being out of the Capitol made him think that I didn't know the politics of the Capitol. Father had taught me what I needed to know before I left, if I ever did decide to come back and get involved with my hometown's affairs.
"I'm going to be president." He said in a matter of fact voice. "I was President Blizzard's right hand, I know how to run this country better then anyone else."
"Until then, we're in charge of this country and this game." I told him, loving the power I had over this guy. He acted like he was higher then either up us every time we met. When father wasn't around, he was an arrogant snob who thought that he could do anything because he thought he was going to be the next president, and that included pushing us around. He pissed me off. "There's no elected president, so Capitol laws state that those next in power are passed down the lineage, starting with wife, followed by brother or sister, then children. If none of those are available, or he clearly stated that the next in power is someone else, an election shall be held to determine who's best suited for the job. And I clearly remember that he never mentioned you in any of his wills."
He seemed to be taken aback by that. Shocked even. I couldn't help but smile and feel superior to him. My brother had reminded me what to say, or basically what to say. He told me that laws of the Capitol and how I was going to have to remember it for when this bastard showed up. Father had taught me, but Conrad had to remind me of what he taught me.
"And I'm wondering how you knew that our father was dead." Conrad called out. His statement made me think now. Nobody had known that father was dead except us and the doctor.
At once, I knew who was reasonable for leaking out that information. The doctor. "The doctor said that he wasn't going to tell anyone until the games were over, because he didn't want anyone to know that he had passed away, leaving the Capitol in anarchy. Because even though Arcane and I are in charge, we've got on intention of keeping the Capitol stable and leading it, that's your guys' problem."
The only people that knew it now were us, the doctor, and the remaining tributes. Until the Capitol elects a real president, they'll have no leadership. It'll be a lawless state. Though, we both knew that they'd elect someone before anything bad happened.
"You two are crazy." My late father's right hand man snarled. "I'm going to wake up the other candidates, the right people, hold a meeting, get the president's seat, then restore the games to it's proper state while brining a government back into play."
I doubt that you even know what the proper state of the games really are.
"You better do that quickly," I told him. "It's only been a little over three and a quarter hours and ten tributes might be dead."
He snarled once more at us before he took off running down the hall.
I turned back to my brother and asked once again.
"You sure you don't want to come with me to District Two? It's not like the Capitol, but it's a good life."
Conrad shook her head.
"I'm not like you Arcane. I might not want to follow father's footsteps, but the Capitol is my home, and I've grown up on it's traditions and haven't been very interested in the districts besides what they do for us."
That was true. He wasn't like me, and he had grown up with the Capitol life style. I was the very rare exception of a Capitol citizen that wanted nothing to do with my hometown.
I was more interested in living in the districts then living in this boring city where you did the same thing over and over again, waiting for something exciting to happen to the dull life we lived. So when I was eighteen, I left the Capitol and joined the peacekeepers. My life became exciting and never boring. It became fulfilling. It was the best decision I had ever made.
Conrad on the other hand, was more like a proper Capitol citizen, except he didn't have his head so far up his ass that he couldn't see the light of day. He wasn't a brainless person waiting for the next Hunger Games, he actually did something with his life that was more then parities and spending money on useless items. Though I did hate that he tried to surgically 'enhance' himself.
In a lot of ways, I was like father, while Conrad was like mother.
father had no surgical enhances, mother had a lot of them. Father was different from the ordinary Capitol citizens, mother was almost like them. Mother was thirty years younger then father, I was six years older then my brother. Mother was always more of a diplomat, father was more of an action taker, just like how I wanted to be a peacekeeper and Conrad wanted to be involved in politics.
Because they were so common, I wondered Conrad would die early, leaving me alone for the remainder of my life.
"Will you be all right though." I asked, wondering if they'd kill him after the games, when that guy or someone else became president, when I left. "They'll be mad at you for this."
"I'll think of something." He calmly told me. "In the meantime, let's just get father's message across Panem." I nodded. That tape recorder that father had left us told us everything, and within hearing it, all this made sense. Though we were adding some additions to our father's plans. "Are the districts watching?"
"They sure are." I told him.
Before the games even began, I radioed the peacekeepers in all the districts to wake up the district citizens before six in the morning so that they could watch the games. I wouldn't want the district citizens to miss it. After all, they were the majority of the audience that needed to see the message that came along with the games.
Though the Capitol audience will be awake in mere moments and discover what's happening. And when they watch this year's game, I wonder if they'll get the message.
I looked at the phones and awaited for the time when my brother and I'd get flooded with calls.
Time of active Hunger Game spanned: 3 Hours 19 minutes 35 seconds
Status of tributes:
D1 Male: Calamity Mershade: Injured
D1 Female: Jenriko "Jen" Florence: Injured
D2 Male: Jeremiah Sentris: Dead
D2 Female: Victory Valentine: Alive
D3 Male: Kendrick Reeves: Alive
D3 Female: Caia Wicken: Alive
D4 Male: Dylan Drake: Injured
D4 Female: Selene Ripple: Alive
D5 Male: Jamie Paradis: Dead
D5 Female: Alexa "Fortune" Langer: Alive
D6 Male: Colton Mullican: Dead
D6 Female: Adrienne Quintus: Alive
D7 Male: Timber "Saw" Carther: Dead
D7 Female: Willow Jacksmith: Dead
D8 Male: Malik Broker: Dead
D8 Female: Vida Rosalyn Harkle: Injured
D9 Male: Trim Fetching: Dead
D9 Female: Wren Sylvia Hayes: Injured
D10 Male: Tanner Hart: Injured
D10 Female: Perla Freuff: Dead
D11 Male: Adrian Colton: Injured
D11 Female: Caritta Desin: Alive
D12 Male: Zeal Skoda: Injured
D12 Female: Daria "Dare" Nettle: Alive
A/N: I know that in chapter 20 I said that the games began at two in the afternoon, but I made a mistake there. It actually begins at ten in the morning. Sorry about all that.
Anyway, another Capitol chapter. I hope you all like it.