MILLER THRESHER- Hosanna Rayles
He was the only one from his Games, wasn't he? He seemed like kind of a nasty person, but that must have been hard, knowing everyone else had faded into memory and someday you would, too.
RAPTURE KAI- Diamond Kai
I didn't regret it. That made me a terrible sister, didn't it? I wasn't happy my brother was dead, but I wasn't sad. I was relieved. I was relieved my brother was dead. Rapture had become something that horrified me and instead of believing in him, I was relieved he was gone. The world was a better place without him. It still broke my heart, though.
CINDERELLA DARE- Arielle Ermin
There was the reason I was stuck here in the Cornucopia like a gimpy freeloader. Only one person could win. Once you knew it was it over, was it really necessary to drag people with you? And what did it get her? She was still dead.
AMPHILIA FORTUNA- Jacquard Crock
The wrong ally died. I wasn't even trying to be all morose and angsty. She was just clearly the better Tribute, and she had more life to go back to, as well. She really would have made a difference helping people like she talked about. I wasn't making a difference to anyone.
CALVIN HEIDI- Gaius McClellan
He'd been into philosophy, too. I remembered I'd walked past him one day in the cafeteria and noticed he'd been reading something by Plato. I'd sort of nodded and he'd sort of nodded back. That was all I would ever know of him.
VICTORY AMARINTHINE- Jynx Susurrus
We used to bicker about who would die first. It hadn't seemed funny in a long time. Outliers sometimes talked about remembering who the real enemy was. I'd chalked it up as nothing but a distraction, but it was true Victory would still be here if it wasn't for the Capitol. Maybe we'd still be enemies. At least we'd still both be alive.
ALSACE CARTIER- Lyon Cartier
I wished I didn't feel numb. It was probably better than feeling it and having to go through the Games in agony, but Alsace deserved for me to care. I guess that's just how mourning goes. You never know how you're going to react, not even if you lose the same person twice.
VALERIE LENN- Jason Lenn
If she had been strong enough she would have made it. Didn't she know only one person could win? It was stupid, coming in to help me. Valerie deserved better than this, but this was what we had, and she should have accepted that. I wished I still had her here with me, but I knew I had more chance of survival without her.
CHANTAL IVINGIN- Cierra Daline
It was the last straw. I'd been picked this many times, I'd made it past the Bloodbath when so many others hadn't, and I'd killed someone I thought was a legend. I was done with my impostor syndrome. I deserved this as much as anyone else. I didn't need to be afraid all the time. People should be afraid of me.
ALYSANNE AUDREN- Lacey Weaver
I sat curled up inside a lab table in some fifth-room floor filled with tools and uniforms, my fists pressed to my eyes. I hadn't ever imagined it. It never entered my mind she'd die in the Bloodbath. It was that much worse, having not prepared for it in the slightest. Was this how it felt when she lost me?
GIZMO TORRENS- Emmeline Blythe
I sent out a mental thanks to whoever did it. Gizmo was smart enough to win it all. Without him, the path was that much clearer for me.
FAUST XANTINA- Elise Delacroix
I hadn't meant for anyone to die. He'd started the fight, and I'd been sure he would win. It was funny how my last thoughts were about how sad Arno would be that he hadn't noticed me in time. Then he was gone, plucked off me in an instant and dead almost before I got in a full breath. If I hadn't been allied with Jessie and Chrome I would have died. I hadn't expected to owe my life to someone like them. Then again, I knew they did it from nothing but cold logic.
NIKO LAFONT- Jayla Dean
Easy come, easy go. It felt rude thinking it, but what could I do? I was fighting for my life and I didn't have the luxury of mourning. I gave his face a respectful watch when it came on in the sky, but that was all I could do for him.
BRIAR HAMPTON- Mati Berlin
She was one of the silly ones, wasn't she? Like me. But she didn't have friends like I did. Jay had found me in the Bloodbath and no one had wanted to take the risk. If we'd went to Briar, she'd be alive, too. I should have asked her.
FELIX VEAUX- Christobal Chanel
I looked out of the corner of my eye at Juniper when his face came up. I didn't see any reaction- not guilt, and not anything else. I didn't like it.
DECLAN MALONE- Juniper Triton
I was sorry he couldn't go home to his son, but I wasn't sorry enough to die for him.
PATRICK DONEGAL- Jay Dallas
We sat wordless in the hospital basement, surrounded by exposed ducts and various dusty equipment. We all had families and people who would miss us. Somehow it hit differently about Patrick. We'd all met Shane. We'd all hoped we could bring them back together. Whoever won, I hoped he forgave us.
VALERIAN MERCURY- Demarcus King
I suppose any of us would have done it. Of all the alliances I'd seen over the years, ours was one of the closest. We really were friends and not just partners. That was something Careers would never understand.
TONY GEAR- Sofie Ferrari
He'd always been nice to me when we crossed paths our first time around. I couldn't believe I'd outlived him. If a miracle happened and I got out of here, I'd need to mention him in my speech to Six. All I could think to say was that he was a good guy and I was sorry.
OAKEN MUSHROOM- Olivine Martinez
He never asked for this, did he? Somewhere his sister was crying for him, and she'd never asked for this, either. I'd always thought the Tributes would have died anyway, and the blame didn't fall on the gun, but the person who shot it. I knew, though, that when she thought of her brother's murderer, it wasn't the Capitol she was seeing.
AKARI IGNEOUS-
JEZZEBEL FERN-
JASMINE ASHENVALE- Rachel Larson
They were all gone. Before the Games had hardly begun, I went from an ally to a loner. Akari had been the strongest of us. We all thought of course she'd be the one to make it. Then Jezzebel and Jasmine had been so refreshingly nice and normal. I was right in the middle- not as weird as a Career but weirder than normal people. I guess I was the average of us. Looking at it that way, our alliance had hardly changed.
HELIOS CARNEGIE- Joseph Carpenter
I thought I'd heard he'd lost someone in the Academy. I'd thought about saying something, but I never had. Maybe he'd thought the same thing. Now that chance was over. He was dead and I was alone. We could have changed that, but neither of us had.
XZAVIER THOMAS- Yttria Noxus
But that wasn't really his name, was it? It was Xzavier Hal. His father clearly wasn't present, and even if Acee gave him away, she cared enough to make sure someone had him. "Thomas" was just a placeholder to put on forms. His surname was Hal.
MAHI ARAPAIMA- Mahi Katao
Again I experienced the weird creepiness of seeing half of my name in the sky. I couldn't imagine how weird it would be if we had the same last name. If there was ever a next time, I should ask him if he wanted to join us. He seemed like a nice guy, and he could use a break. Not that being with us was such a break.
GAVIN BOOTH- Paloma Bennett
Yttria gave me a sympathetic look. We'd barely interacted, but there was a connection between District partners. It was just superstition, but I felt like I was halfway dead, seeing the other part of Ten in the air like that. At least this time there were more of us. And then there was Jezzebel. If she'd stayed with us, would she have lived? Should we have kept trying to persuade her? I'd carry it with me forever.
CALLUM ROSENCRANZ- Stevie Pagett
In one way, we were closer than we'd ever been. The one thing Callum had known but I hadn't was what it was like to lose the other. I chided myself for ever holding Callum's occasional moodiness against him. I didn't know how I could ever be happy again.
JEANIE CLAY- Camille Igawa
There were so many kinds of people in the world. Even in Nine, there were thousands of people I'd never meet. Poor people, rich people, hardworking people, kind people, rude people, and all of them people. I'd never know anything more about Jeanie but her name… and that she was a person.
SIREN HASVAK- Tuesday Erelle
It was her, then. It unsettled me to watch her face looking down at me. She hadn't been looking at me when I shot her. She hadn't even known it was me. So many other people were shooting. It could just as well be me lying there, unaware I'd even been killed, while she ran away to fight another day.
Tulsi Sa- No Way Down D4F
Things turned out a lot better than expected. I'd hoped, of course, that we would win the Cornucopia and not lose anyone, but I'd expected a lot worse. We'd lost Rapture, Faust and Chantal, but we were still plenty strong. We didn't have to fight over who had to stay and watch the supplies, either, since Arielle was wounded and Diamond certainly didn't have the heart to hunt for a while. Speaking of Arielle, we'd almost lost her. She lost a lot of blood and she got dizzy if she tried to stand. On the other hand, this was the best possible Arena to get injured in. Her wound was neatly covered with a pressure bandage and we'd smeared it with antiseptic from all the supplies we had lying around. Even with the outliers sniping stuff while we fought with the other pack, we had more than we could ever use.
"Everyone group together?" Cyrene requested. "We can update our plan."
We all gathered around Arielle so she wouldn't have to move. It felt weirdly corporate, sitting at a table on off-white plastic chairs.
"Clearly the rival Career pack is neutralized, so that leaves Jay's alliance and Gaius' alliance as the biggest," Talise said. Jason didn't seem to be part of the other pack anymore, after what he'd done, and Jynx and Cierra had little connection to each other. I hadn't seen them all but from what we could tell they'd fled separately.
"Also the Cabellos and their group," Margo pointed out. "They're smaller but they're stacked."
Cyrene nodded. "I think they're the ones we should focus on next."
"Now, maybe?" Margo said eagerly, shifting in her chair. Once the Tributes were out of sight, there were any number of places they could hide, but it still felt weird not hunting right away. I looked up at the skylight and noticed it was already nearly noon.
"Guess it doesn't matter so much here," Arielle said when she saw where I was looking. With all the artificial lighting, the one place the outliers couldn't hide was in the dark.
"Unfortunately, there still are a few big alliances yet. I suppose we could split in half, but even that's risky. I think we might have to hunt as a unit."
Despite the general reluctance, we all knew it was true. We were the dominant alliance, but that could change in an instant. With Arielle already wounded, if we lost even one or two members it could shift the balance of power. I could already tell it was going to be a long, boring slog trying to ferret out and kill Tributes likely one at a time. The alternative, though, was risking half our alliance getting wiped out if they crossed paths with one of the larger alliances and they decided to take the gamble. No, it seemed that for now, five would have to be a crowd.
Delilah Clementine- Power to the People D10F
Gabriel ran down the hall ahead of me. I was lagging a few step behind, where I could hear any pursuers more easily. When Gabriel reached the steps he went upward and I didn't object. Maybe it was cliché and the Careers would know most people would go up, but instincts run deep.
On the platform outside the third floor, I stopped, waving at Gabriel to signal him. He came down next to me and I pointed at the map outside the second floor door. He had to smile at the irony.
The audiology department, located on the sixth floor, was the least helpful place in the entire hospital for Gabriel. It was also, however, the most soundproofed. Even the front door to the department was thickly padded, in contrast to the transparent glass doors for most departments. It might catch the Careers' eye just by its difference, but every choice had its risks.
Even with the door closed, the mortal peril of the Careers hunting us never left my mind as we desperately searched for something to better bar the door. Surely they were already hunting. I couldn't know for sure where they'd go first, but if I was a Career in an indoor Arena, I'd go for the top floor. There were four floors above us, so I felt a little better, but there were a lot of Careers out there, and some of them were pretty creative.
I poked my head out of the office I'd been searching to see Gabriel run past me wielding a broom. He slotted it through the door handles and I felt a weight fall off my chest. The Careers could get through it, but just the presence of any barrier held a talismanic power. We weren't safe, but we weren't exposed anymore. Like some underground rabbit, it was the best I could hope for.
"Was there a mop sink in there?" I asked Gabriel, who smiled and nodded. Water was taken care of, then.
"What are we going to do for food?" I asked.
Gabriel put out his arms worriedly. He looked around the room and his eyes fell on a potted plant.
"You think?" his interpreter verbalized for him after some signs.
We bent over the plant on either side, inspecting it. It had broad leaves with a pink vein in the center of each leaf. I'd seen some around in people's yards, but I'd never thought about whether they were edible. Probably not a good sign. In a place as hard up as Ten, we didn't have many non-useful plants.
Gabriel pinched one of the leaves between his fingers. His face scrunched. I didn't need to wait for the interpreter, even though I didn't recognize the sign.
Plastic.
While it's still barely noon on day 1, I did the first round of cannons just because there's so many. I added two POVs to give some substance and move the story along, but not much is happening right now. Also fun fact, while this is a generic humongous hospital, I'm using Woodwinds Health Campus as visual inspiration. It's very modern and high-quality so it fits the vibe. The Arena is much larger, though.