Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
Iridescence Sterling, 17
When she woke, she felt worse. Her head was still pounding, burning, and bile burned at the back of her throat. Stars flashed behind her eyes.
She couldn't win like this.
She couldn't fight like this.
She could barely walk like this.
Iridescence rolled over and vomited up what little her stomach contained, gagging more at the vile taste in her mouth. The stench leaked into her. She groaned and flopped back onto her back.
"You're awake," Ares said.
"You never woke me for watch," she mumbled.
"I tried. You wouldn't wake. Kept twitching." He sighed. "This is getting worse, isn't it?"
Iridescence dragged a hand across her eyes. "What if I can't do this, Ares?"
"Then I'd tell you you're wrong." Ares slipped into the shelter beside her. "You're one of the bravest and fiercest competitors in the Game I know. I know you can do this. For your brothers. And especially for that little sister of yours."
She smiled. "Look at you giving me a pep talk."
"Someone has to."
Something rustled outside. Footsteps. They'd been foolish, Ares coming inside to deal with her. He took his axe and she reached for her bow, nocking an arrow on the string. It trembled in her hand.
Slowly, carefully, Ares raised the edge of their shelter and stepped out, hefting his axe at his side. Iridescence crawled after him, covering his position with her bow as he moved towards the trees.
In a blur, a knife came flying from the treeline, followed by a blur of red, blue and yellow. Ares swung his axe, barely twisting aside in time to avoid hitting the girl that came flying at him.
"Wonder?" he shouted.
"Ares," she whispered.
Iridescence groaned, lowering her bow. "You know this girl?"
Ares nodded. "We were allying with her."
"Fuck, am I glad to find you," 'Wonder' muttered, stepping past him into their camp. "What is going on? Are those other kids really actually dying?"
"We think so," Iridescence replied.
"Fuck."
Ares waved a hand at the remains of their fire. "Well, I don't think we ever dissolved the alliance, so… You wanna join us?"
Apollo Gilmore, 17
The torches had worked perfectly for navigating the arena, and they had made it a good distance in the night, but been forced to stop by shouts and screams and the sounds of fighting nearby. Too nearby. Then a cannon. Then nothing. He had exchanged a look with Artemis and then the two of them, wordlessly, as one, had extinguished the makeshift torches and ducked to hide behind a set of the large, protruding gravestones. It wasn't a perfect hiding spot, and the approaching players had held actual, real, battery powered torches of their own.
Artemis clutched his hand, and he could actually feel her grip, the fear in it, the strength enough to start cutting off the bloodflow to his fingers. Apollo wanted to say something to reassure her, but that might only give away their position. He pulled her close instead, covering her with his own body. If the other players saw them and went in for the kill, they might hit him, with his zero-powered armour, and miss Artemis.
Their footsteps continued, crunching past their hiding place, and on into the darkness.
Neither of them dared say anything for the longest time, and then, as one, they stood, turned, and hurried back the way they had come. They'd hide in their daytime camp and attempt to get out of the fog in the morning.
Which was where they were now, only just stumbling back to the gravestones they had huddled behind the night before. Artemis laid a hand on one of them. "Hey. I… appreciate it, you know?"
"What?"
"Last night. You protecting me. Thank you."
Apollo curled his lip. They were meant to be the bad guys, the villains. But she was his sister, and even villains could have good points, right?
"It was nothing," he muttered, turning away. "Just what brothers do, right?"
Artemis laughed. "Since when was that what we do?"
There was truth in her words. They lived to compete with each other, inside and outside the Game. They ran and swam to know who was fasted; they tested to know who was smartest; they gamed to know who was the best. Somewhere along the line much of their anger had been directed at the Sterlings and they no longer argued or fought quite so much, but at the end of day, this was a competition and they both wanted to win, both wanted to live.
"Since I don't want you to die," he said sullenly.
Artemis sighed heavily and embraced him in a slightly awkward side hug. "I don't want you to die either."
"We can't both win," he said, looking down at her.
She slid her hand down and curled her fingers through his. "Then we work something else out."
They walked out to where they'd heard the screaming the night before. The player's – a girl, if the sound of their voice and screams had been anything to go by – body was already gone, but there was dried blood on the train tracks far below and scraps of fabric along the side of the canyon. The remains of a shattered bow lay scattered over the tracks.
"Let's see if they left their bag," Apollo said.
They searched for it but found nothing. Whoever killed the player must have taken it with them. Or maybe they'd never had one. Pity.
Artemis pointed over to the other side of the canyon, which looked like mostly rolling green grass. "Looks less foggy on that side."
Apollo frowned, glancing either way up and down the tracks. "You want to risk the train?"
She smiled. "I will if you will."
"Game on."
Calpurnia Catallus, 16
Sorcha and Luminita were awake before them.
Again.
And arguing.
Again.
"I know their sisters, but I think they might fall apart before we do, " Marcellina whispered.
"Don't be ridiculous. We're never going to fall apart," Calpurnia replied.
Marcellina didn't giggle.
Calpurnia groaned. "Don't tell me you're still mad?"
"I'm not; it's just… Well, it's been a lot."
"Who was it that convinced Sorcha to come back for you?"
"Luminita."
"Ugh. You're being impossible!"
"And you're being mean!"
"I was only being realistic!"
"This isn't about that anymore!" Marcellina slammed a hand against the wall, her eyes flashing with anger. "It's about you behaving like a rude bitch!"
"I am not–"
"You are too!" Marcellina turned away, her shoulders shuddering. "I wish I'd never listened to you. I wish I'd never come here."
"You wanted to play just as much as I did!"
"My dad made me promise I wouldn't," she mumbled.
"Oh, 'your daddy made you promise!'" Calpurnia shook her head. "How old are you?"
A knock came at the door. The two of them froze and turned to it. Calpurnia reached for her sword.
"Who is it?"
"It's me," said Luminita.
Calpurnia giggled nervously. "Oh." She reached out to open the door. It clanked against the floor and wall. "We thought you were a murderous psychopath."
"Thanks." Luminita cast a glare at Sorcha. "Look, we need to take a vote. Someone thinks we should leave this place and go hunting down other players. I think we should stay here, lay traps, and wait for anyone that shows up. Thoughts?"
"Go," said Calpurnia.
"Stay," said Marcellina.
They looked at each other.
"Helpful," muttered Luminita.
And then, from somewhere, a sharp scream cut through the passageways of the prison. They all spun towards the sound.
"Sorcha," muttered Luminita, and took off running.
Calpurnia turned to Marcellina. "Should we–"
"Probably," Marcellina agreed.
Calpurnia shifted her sword in her hand, and the two of them set off after Luminita.
Sorcha's screams were coming from somewhere on the lower floor. They followed them down and to the back of the building, but by the time they reached her, her screams had quietened. She had opened the back door to the prison, and light was pouring in from the garden. Sorcha was hanging upside down in the doorway, suspended by one foot, her arm tangled in a chunk of shrubbery by the door.
"Hold still and I'll cut you down!" Luminita was complaining, reaching up to the rope holding her foot.
"Ugh! Those little brats!" Sorcha shrieked.
"Brats?" Marcellina asked.
Sorcha jabbed a hand through the doorway. "They're getting away! Do something useful and stop them!"
Marcellina reached the window by the door just quickly enough to catch a glimpse of a small shadow disappearing through what looked to be a garden gate.
"Maybe we should focus on getting you down first," said Luminita.
"We need to go after them!"
"You're not going anywhere – and would you stop kicking me?"
Calpurnia caught Marcellina's arm. "Come on, let's go have a look!"
"I'm not sure that would be wise–"
"Come on!" Calpurnia pulled her towards the door, ducking around the stool squirming Sorcha, who was well and truly tangled in the rope holding her leg. A little more hesitantly, Marcellina followed her.
Outside, the garden looked like it had been stripped of… something. The gate the other players had filled through was wedged shut, and Calpurnia had to give it a few hard kicks before it swung open. Beyond it, the grass that covered the arena was far taller now, stretching almost to their knees.
Behind them, Sorcha shrieked as Luminita finally managed to cut her free and she tumbled to the ground, clattering across the floor with a displeased 'oof.'
"Where are they?" she demanded, kicking her way over to Calpurnia and Marcellina.
Calpurnia pointed across the arena at where four figures were fleeing through the long grass, rapidly growing smaller against the horizon.
Sorcha made a noise of frustration. "Well, what are we waiting here for? Let's get after them!"
Luminescence Sterling, 17
Crossing the train tracks into the creepy, foggy area of the arena had been a mistake, and so today the three of them were backtracking. They'd have to risk the poison of the Fiftieth. Surprisingly, it would be better than the fog of the Seventy Fifth, at least they'd be able to see something.
"We could try going a little further," Etheria suggested. "Just to… see? Things might open up in a hundred metres."
Luminescence squinted through the fog and shook his head. "Or we could walk into more players in fifty feet. None of us would ever know. We'll never find either of the girls this way. Besides, if Phoenix is alive, our best chance of finding her is by staying close to the train tracks."
And her face had never shown in the sky, even after they assumed she died aboard the train. Which meant she was out here somewhere, alone and afraid.
"Agreed," Radiance said.
Etheria nodded, her face turning pink. "I– OK. Sorry. I didn't mean to…"
Radiance sighed. "You didn't. It was a good thought. But if we start thinking that way, we could start telling outsells to go a little bit further and then a little more and a little more. Better we turn round now, while we can still see our tracks, and get back to a better part of the arena."
Etheria nodded, though she looked guilty still, as though she'd done something wrong.
"It'll be fine. Some Games are just like this," Radiance said, in what was evidently some attempt to reassure her. It didn't work, because Etheria only looked more miserable.
"But this isn't really a game anymore, is it?" she replied, and there was nothing either of them could say to that.
They continued through the fog in a strange silence, staying close so as not to be separated. Luminescence had long since begun to theorise that this was a version of the arena from the Third Quarter Quell, a strange choice to use if these hijackers wanted entertainment but a brilliant choice if they wanted the players to suffer.
He'd said nothing of it to Radiance and Etheria.
They reached the tracks, though they must have travelled some distance up them because they emerged near a twisted, mangled heap of metal. The remains of the two trains that had crashed already.
Radiance cracked a grin. "Phoenix would love this."
Luminescence managed a laugh. "She would, wouldn't she?"
It would be fascinating to her. Especially since he could see gears and chains in the wreckage, which meant the machines must have had something close to a functioning engine.
Luminescence waved them towards it. "Come on. Let's see if there's anything useful in all this lot."
Andreas Amandiel, 18
People.
Other players.
After almost two days wandering around in the fog, he – and Marquis, Marquis was still with him too – had finally managed to find another pair of tributes.
A boy with faded blue hair and an old, fading tattoo and a girl with brighter pink hair, camped out in the centre of a circle of stones. Her armour looked good, but his was at zero and dried blood streaked his face and shoulders.
Perfect.
All he had to do was make that one look incapable and the two would turn on each other. Then, given the circumstances, he and Marquis could take out the other, and they could take their stuff. It looked like the two had a decent sized haul. Three backpacks as well. Did they have a third ally somewhere in the area?
Andreas evaluated what he could mess with while he waited for the girl to drift away from the boy. Bags, weapons – his sword. Ooh, that would be perfect. He'd put it down, possibly on account of his injury, and if they could convince him the girl had taken it…"We going after them?" asked Marquis.
"Wait," Andreas replied.
"What for? We match numbers and one of them is injured."
Andreas hesitated. Did he bring Marquis in on his usual methods? He'd have to, wouldn't he? Otherwise they'd have to engage these two in an actual fight, which would be considerably riskier.
"We don't have to fight them. We can make them fight each other."
Marquis frowned. "And how do we do that?"
Andreas grinned. "Watch."
They had to wait for a long while before an opportunity came up. Marquis had long since got bored, and was listlessly playing with a stone between his hands. But the boy they were watching had stood and limped a little way away, apparently to take a piss. Andreas frowned. They'd never needed to do that in earlier Games. It was too crass for the watchers, apparently. A new addition to the Game, or was this boy pulling a power play. Andreas liked it, either way. Bodily functions, even when disgusting, were a matter of life. They shouldn't be ignored.
The benefit of the boy doing so, however, was that Andreas could creep out, grab the sword, and hide it behind one of the swords. He had time, so he opened the girl's backpack and took a spool of wire from within for good measure.
His task done, he crept back to where Marquis was waiting. "Come on. We're done for the day."
"But we don't even know if they're going to fight!"
"They won't. We'll have to act again in the morning. But we need to be careful doing it."
"Or we could just put a knife through their throats."
Andreas shook his head. "This is less risky. Now come on. Let's find somewhere to sleep."
Marquis was annoyingly reluctant, but at last he obliged, following Andreas away into the fog.
He was going to make his strategy bring him first place this time.
He had to.
Or his actual head would roll.