The Deep Abyss
Day Ten of the Arena
11:00 am
"Wait!" Kalo calls, as Nisa charges ahead.
They stretch out their hand toward the Four girl as they pursue Jorah and his last ally - the athletic boy from Eleven. But Kalo cannot keep up with her ferocious ally, not with this new anger in her step.
(Kalo's been here before, she knows how this goes. There's never enough time to say goodbye.)
(Nisa hasn't been the same since Amur died, she's been stuck in some kind of tunnel vision, hell-bent upon ending this as fast as possible. Why won't people just wait and savour the moment? Why are they always in such a rush for things to change?)
As they crash down a spiral staircase leading deeper into the arena, Kalo glances back for a second for any sign of Frost and Reinhardt - nothing.
Nisa is determined to wipe out the remaining tributes, and Kalo is desperate to not let her slip away in an instant, just like Hazin, and Makeole, and Medo… and Maika.
Jorah and the Eleven boy crash through a door at the bottom of the staircase, and so Nisa and Kalo follow.
Everything is blurry, Kalo's eyes are weighed down by a mountain from lack of sleep, her entire body throbs with countless cuts and bruises, her leg still stings with every step, and her shoulder with every sway of her arm. Yet she keeps going, her feet charging after Nisa - like how they charged after Hazin on that fateful night that he left.
They are now in a dark, underground factory. Chains hang down above them from the roof, machines pump up and down, and multiple different-sized cogs rotate around the place. Once each cog has rotated fully, orange, glowing molten liquid is poured mechanically into a series of gigantic vats.
A suffocating heat presses in from every direction as soon as they enter the factory and sweat begins gushing from all over like a river.
An old, withered staircase winds up and up, around the machinery - to the top of the factory.
Everything is fading around Kalo… all sounds are just audible wallpaper, far distant and meaningless. They wobble, about to collapse down but the feeling of falling snaps them out of their dream state.
She shakes her head, then scans around the factory for Nisa. There! She's clambering up the staircase after Jorah, then, when she has finally caught up, she starts thrusting her spear at his back. But as always - he's prepared. He chambers his leg back and slams his heel into Nisa's gut!
CRASH
She comes tumbling down and down the stairs before crumbling into a heap at the bottom.
"Nisa!"
Kalo locks eyes with the pale boy from Fourteen, who's standing smugly at the top of the staircase. "Remember Kalo, final two… you and me," he calls down, displaying his spider orb in his hand.
Kalo kneels down by Nisa's side. The girl's eyes are burning with fury until she sees it's Kalo.
"What's the rush?" Kalo quips.
Nisa shakes her head in response. "You wanna get outta this place, or not?"
Kalo shrugs. "It's not so bad here, once you get used to the dark, and spiders, and man-eating rats-"
Nisa shoves them out of the way, continuing her mission to kill the two remaining in the anti-career alliance. Groaning in agony, Kalo crawls up after her. Why can no one in this world just wait for a second? - they think to themself
The stairs finally come to an end. Kalo is now on a narrow grating - leading to a metal door at the very end. In between her and that, Nisa swipes again at Jorah and the Eleven boy with her spear. The two lands a heavy swing onto Nisa's spear simultaneously, knocking it out of her hands.
"No!" Kalo bolts at the boys.
(It's too soon. Amur went too soon. They can't let the same happen to Nisa. She wants to hear more of her poetry, she wants to see her bright eyes again and hear more of her funny stories from her childhood in Four.)
Kalo swipes their katana down onto Jorah, he narrowly manages to block it! Then, gritting her teeth, she presses the weapon toward his face. The tall boy from Eleven is about to charge Kalo, but Jorah holds his free hand out to stop him.
Jorah's eyes move back to Kalo. "We can't escape our pasts," he groans. "We can only fight it."
His words cause Kalo's mind to drift for a moment, and Jorah uses the opportunity to plant a kick into Kalo's weak leg - buckling her down.
Kalo hisses in pain. "Motherfucker…"
A cry sounds from behind Kalo! Nisa hurls her spear with all her might directly at Jorah's chest.
There is a sound of the spear impaling flesh, but it's not Jorah's. The Eleven boy jumped in front of the spear, and it is now sticking out of his chest with his blood dripping out. His shocked eyes travel down to the weapon in his body. The boy's lips start to shake. "Finish it Jorah, finish it for us…" he croaks.
BOOM
The boy from eleven slumps down dead against the railings. Nisa runs to retrieve her spear from the body, and already she disappeared through the metal door in her quest to kill the final enemy of their alliance.
Kalo coughs with pain, their hands brace against their injured leg, pushing themself back up.
"Nisa!" She calls.
At that moment, Frost appears at Kalo's side, having ascended the stairs - now panting heavily and sweating from the heat of the factory.
"Let her go! You'll only have to kill her yourself!" He exclaims.
(But Kalo can't let go, if she does then she'd be letting go of Maika as well.)
"I-"
But, just at that moment, Reinhardt's war hammer is suddenly raised above Frost's head…
Kalo tries to lift her finger up. "Behind you!"
SPLAT
Before Kalo can even raise their finger, the brutish, backstabbing career from Two has split Frost's head open with his gigantic weapon!
BOOM
The Five Boy's face is suddenly pale and lifeless, and his body tips off of the railings where what remains of it is incinerated in the vat below.
Kalo's face turns blood red, watching Reinhardt twirl his weapon cockily in his hand just after turning on his ally like that. Their minds had been so obsessed with not losing Nisa that they'd forgotten all about Reinhardt.
The boy from Two steps forward, cracking his neck and looking down at Kalo condescendingly. "And now 'Kalo', you're about to find out that my bite is worse than my bark," he grins.
Kalo allows all her fury to well up inside her. They imagine, one last time, that they are staring at their father - ready to channel all the rage from their life and unleash it on this smug, mass-murdering career.
Kalo lets out a cry and then slams herself into Reinhardt - closing the distance before he can wind up another heavy swing! Her fist instantly connects with his face, once, twice, thrice… she keeps going and going, at an ever more rapid pace, even with her fist stinging with pain. The last strike reopens Reinhardt's cuts on his face, he screams with fury as blood bursts from his face.
Regaining his composure, he brings the blunt side of the hammer across Kalo's left eye!
"Argh!"
Kalo is sent flying over the railings! A piercing ringing sound reverberates between their ears! Her left eye is closed-over immediately in a massive blister and all sight in that eye is gone.
On the way down, their bag is caught on a screw in the railings, tearing it, and leaving them suspended in the air! Kalo thrashes around in the air in panic. Eventually the bag tears completely and she crashes down, bouncing off several machines on the way but missing the vat.
CRACK
Her ribs took the majority of the fall damage! She can't breathe! It feels as if all the air has been sucked from her lungs and her ribs are smashed in her frame.
But somehow, air spills back into her lungs, she's breathing again.
They glimpse up to the top of the factory where Reinhardt has started to descend down on one of the chains.
"Don't worry, it's nothing personal," he calls down before landing at the bottom on his feet with a thud. He tilts his head, snarkily. "Actually, maybe it is a little personal."
The huge boy from Two storms towards Kalo, blood running from his face like a gushing river.
Kalo crawls to her feet, her entire body riddled with pain at every movement. Reinhardt's next few swings of his gigantic weapon are powerful but slow, allowing Kalo to dodge them. They can see Reinhardt losing his breath with each failed attack, all she has to do is keep this up!
Reinhardt grits his teeth, glaring at the outlier, and she returns her own daggers. Reinhardt strikes down again hard, but simultaneously, Kalo backs up against one of the machines. Thus, when Reinhardt's weapon impacts, steam shoots out all over him.
Reinhardt's face shifts and contorts in confusion, allowing Kalo to slip one of the nails from the machine into her hand!
"Not so fast!"
Reinhardt grabs hold of her, then lifts the girl into the air, beginning to crush her ribs slowly. She yelps and growls in pain as her ribs split in her body.
(They need the demon, the demon they had inside of them at the beginning of the games. She needs it back one last time. Her ribs can't take any more!)
With a cry of fury, they jam the nail into Reinhardt's shoulder! The career howls in agony, and tosses her through the air at another metal machine! Kalo bounces off of it and hits the floor again! Before she can look up she feels his boot stomp down on her skull, knocking a few of her teeth out!
The Two boy yanks the smaller 5'8 girl up by their collar before proceeding to slam them into another machine!
The boy wipes the dripping blood and pulsating sweat from his head. "I've been waiting for this moment," he grins.
He calmly heads back over to where his war hammer is lying on the floor, and lifts it up into his hands, heading back towards Kalo with a smug grin on his face, while Kalo spits blood and a few of their teeth out.
Kalo glances up at their bag - still hanging from the railings. There's a chain dangling all the way from where their bag is to where they're lying below. With a last-ditch effort, she gives the chain a yank, and the bag is dislodged from the railings. It sails down neatly into Kalo's hand, and inside she finds what she had hoped - the final sticky bomb.
Reinhardt cackles. "Nice move, but your bag ain't gonna help you no more."
Kalo conceals the bomb behind their back. She glares at the boy from Two long enough that she no longer sees a person anymore - just a piece of flesh. Everything that he's done throughout the time that they've known him cycles through her mind. Every child he's killed, every insult, every sneer, and every bone of hers he's broken.
All her pain is gone, replaced by pure adrenaline, and now she's ready to unleash hell on this boy.
She rolls forward, just as Reinhardt slams his hammer down, and narrowly avoids it. Now, with his back turned to them, they dive onto him like a vicious bear. A feral cry bursts from her lungs, as she stabs her nail into Reinhardts back, again, and again, and again.
He hisses in agony but manages to tug Kalo's hair and begin to drag them off!
(No! This is their last chance to end him! To see Nisa one last time!)
However, on the way, she jams the sticky bomb onto the back of his neck and flips the button to activate it - just in time.
After she's slammed onto the floor again, she watches Reinhardt flail about trying to tug the ticking bomb off of his neck!
They look him dead in the eyes. For the first time, they see genuine terror in the career.
"Quick question for you: do you scream or yelp?" Kalo grins.
Reinhardt tilts his head in irony after his words are thrown back at him.
The bomb ceases its ticking from behind his head.
"Shit…"
BANG
His head explodes outwards with the blast, sending parts of his brain and skull everywhere, including on Kalo's face.
Kalo swipes the blood out of her eyes to see Reinhardt's decapitated body tumble to the floor.
BOOM
Three remain. Kalo's vision begins to fade again, all of her fight has been sucked out of her.
Then, a soft voice fills the air. "Come on."
Kalo's eyes slide open once more to the sight of a faint figure in the distance…. Maika.
"Come on, you have to do it. For me," the voice echoes.
Kalo pulls out Maika's lavender in their palm. It's now glowing brightly, brighter than they've ever seen it. "For you," they whisper back.
The earth starts to shake around them, knocking Kalo out of her daydream! Maika's ghost is nowhere to be seen.
And somehow, Kalo finds that her legs are hauling themself up and stumbling forward as the factory collapses around them….