Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
Sorcha Summerfield, 17
She had spent most of the night finding her way through the all-encompassing darkness back to the train tracks. The canyon they were set in was shallower here, and Sorcha easily slid to the ground. All she needed to do was walk a little way up the tracks to find a section of cliff stiff and low enough for her to not even need to climb. All she needed to do was scramble a short way up, and then she could get her arms over the top and roll into the long grass.
From there, she left the tracks behind, pushing her way through the overgrown grass to make her way deeper into the arena. Her boots crunched through dry grass beneath her. She frowned and ripped up a handful.
Sorcha wasn't a gardener. Such things were beneath her. But she'd also entered enough rounds of The Game for a nasty theory to itch at the back of her mind. They'd had no rain at all, these last few days.
Which meant either fire, flood, or wind.
She needed to make it back to that disgusting prison building.
She wondered where Luminita was now, after having abandoned her for those freaks. There had been no canons, which meant she was presumably still alive.
Sorcha had pushed her way through the long grass to a place where they might have camped before, where the grass was flattened in a wide circle. She slept there that night, resting her head on her backpack. She preferred having allies, but she'd played Games alone before.
She could do it again.
When dawn finally broke, she attempted to brush some of the long grass aside so she could see, but it was taller than her now, and she had no way of seeing where the disgusting prison building was. She had to position herself from what she roughly remembered before she started to push her way through the grass.
There were still plenty of other players in this Game. She'd find new allies and make Luminita regret this.
Emeria Deliah Echavoque, 15
It had been six days, in Game.
But on the outside it would have been, what, four hours if she included the pre-Games shit?
Yeah, four hours sounded about right.
Four hours.
Four hours ago, Silverie had been alive.
Four hours ago, Marcellina's best friend Calpurnia had been alive.
And now both of them were dead.
For now, Emeria had been unable to say anything to the other girl. She had been distracted by her cries, the hot tears on her face.
So they sat together, in this empty room, and mourned their losses.
But when morning came, Emeria stood up and took her bow.
Silverie wouldn't want her to spend her time mourning and crying for them.
They would want her to have the chance to win and live.
"Come on," she said to Marcellina.
Marcellina dithered in the entrance to the little building. "Where are we going?"
"To find someone to shoot," Emeria replied.
Silverie was dead. But they would have wanted her to go on, to fight. They would never have wanted her to stay down like a kicked animal.
Marcellina drew one of her throwing knives and rubbed a dirty hand across her eyes. "Like who?"
Emeria shrugged. "The pink-haired girl that caused Silverie and Calpurnia's deaths, for a start."
It was the right thing to do. A fire ignited in Marcellina's eyes. "How do we find her?"
Emeria smiled. "We get moving."
With a little motivation, Marcellina soon followed after her. She was no Silverie, but with so many other players still in The Game - including Zephyr and Celeste, wherever they had gone - Emeria needed an ally to watch her back. And Marcellina was as good as any.
They didn't find the pink haired girl.
They did find the train tracks again, though they were barely sunken five feet into the ground here.
"Do you think they're closing up the canyon?" Marcellina asked.
Emeria shook her head. "We must be closer to the cornucopia."
"Oh." Marcellina frowned up the train tracks, squinting into the distance. "Do you think we should follow them?"
Emeria shook her head. "There could be other players there. Bigger alliances than ours."
She'd never wanted such a big alliance as the one Zephyr and Celeste pulled together. Though it had given them some protection, some hope.
"Come on." Emeria jumped down into the now shallow ditch.
After a moment, Marcellina followed. "Where are we going?"
"Back to the prison."
She and Silverie should have stayed there to begin with. It had been a perfect place to set up camp, with shelter and food in the garden.
(and silverie would still have been alive, not dead in their pod while emeria had been trying to process their death for several in-game days)
"I thought we were looking for someone to stab."
Emeria glanced at her. "Yeah. That too."
Maximillian Marcus Badondé, 18
He was woken early that morning by the insistent beeping of a sponsor gift. Maximillian was awake in a heartbeat, snatching his bow and looking around himself. He couldn't see anyone else, which meant this was probably a gift arriving for him tagger than sodding for another player nearby that he hadn't yet noticed.
A moment later, a long, thin parcel broke through the foliage above him and floated down to land neatly in front of him. Maximillian waited until it had settled before poking it with his bow. It didn't move. Or explode. Which was good. The District Four seal was stamped on top, which made this for him. That was the District he'd been sorted into when he started this hellish game.
He pressed the button at the top of the parcel. It slid open, revealing a bundle of arrows. Maximilian's heart leapt.
"Perfect," he muttered.
Someone up there must like him. And enough to pay to arm him.
He shifted through them. There were twelve, six ordinary ones, but an additional two each that were coloured red, blue, and silver. Maximillian rolled them over between his fingers. He figured there had to be something different about them, but he wasn't sure what yet.
He stuffed them into his quiver, though kept his bow in his hand. He'd need it close for if another player ventured close to him. So far, he'd seen no others since the boy he killed the day before. But if someone was sending him arrows, he must be nearby to someone.
He backed up into the trees, keeping himself out of sight of anyone else that might be walking the train tracks.
"There should still be another twenty two players in this arena," he said, gesturing at the trees around him. "Anyone feel like pointing me at them?"
Unsurprisingly, no one did. He sighed and continued through the trees. Hopefully if he got back nearer to the cornucopia, he'd find others there. The supplies would presumably draw them back. And if there were no other players there, hopefully he could acquire some supplies for himself.
It was the best plan he'd had for quite some time.
Not for the first time, he curses his foster sisters for bringing him here. Though the delight that had come from seeing their faces in the sky and watching their deaths had since faded into something more… uneasy. They had still been people he'd known, even if he hadn't cared about them, and they had died in pain.
He'd done that to two boys personally.
But then…
If he'd done that twice already…
He could do it again.
Vivaldi Perlman, 16
It didn't look like the mutts were coming back, but they stayed on the roof of the mauseleum for the night regardless. Phoenix stayed with her brother, curling up against his side and something inside Vivaldi was… jealous of that.
He hadn't been quite so alone while he'd had Phoenix.
Now she had his brother and what use did she have for him?
The girl that had come with her brother - Etheria, Vivaldi thought her name was - sat down at his side. "You look worried."
"We're competing in the Hunger Games."
And his boyfriend - if Thorin was still his boyfriend - was trying to kill them.
"Yeah." Etheria twisted her hands together. "There is that."
Did he tell her about the faint hope Phoenix might have? No - she might have come here with Phoenix's brother, but how did they know they could trust her? She could announce it to the hijackers - or just be unable to keep a secret. Best they keep that to themselves, at least for now.
"I wish I'd never entered this stupid Game," Vivaldi muttered.
Etheria smiled. "I think we're all wishing that."
Luminescence crawled over to join them, Phoenix close beside him. She looked more at ease already with her brother there. He gave her a protector, a guardian, someone she could rely on. Vivaldi couldn't blame her for feeling safer. Even while her other brother was dead.
He wondered where Thorin was right now. He and Phoenix had spoken at length about him and his little alliance, with Phoenix having some very distinct… theories. Vivaldi didn't want to believe any of them, but it did make sense.
"We need to aim to get out of this part of the arena," Luminescence said.
Etheria groaned. "Back to the poison meadow?"
"Or round to the grassland. Or back to the cornucopia. Anywhere but here. We need to get more visibility. In this fog we're sitting ducks."
Vivaldi could see the logic in that. Etheria looked exasperated, but she nodded regardless.
"I lost the compass." Luminescence still looked pained at that, but he continued to speak, putting his hurt aside. "But hopefully so long as we keep going in a straight line, we'll hit something, whether it's the train tracks or the edge of the arena."
"What about Thorin's alliance?" Vivaldi asked.
"The players that attacked you?" Luminescence picked up his spear, hefting it in one hand. "We'll have to handle them if we come across them."
"I'm sure they're working with the hijackers," Phoenix said. That was her theory, that instead of the outer ring Thorin had claimed to be from, he had come from one of the Districts and tricked his way into The Game. For… Reasons, Vivaldi supposed.
Luminescence gave her a grin, spinning his spear in one hand. "Then we see if we can catch one and question them."
Phoenix looked at Vivaldi. "You know… We could lay bait if you wanted to try something like that."
Luminescence smiled. "Let's get out of this fog first. Then we can think about that."
Maybe he should think about breaking the alliance, but there were still a lot of tributes in the arena. Twenty three, if Vivaldi was remembering correctly. Including Thorin, who wanted to kill him now.
He needed to stay with the alliance. He was safer with other people. And Phoenix and Luminescence seemed to know what they were doing.
They climbed down, Luminescence first, so that he could take a look around and check for danger, followed by Etheria, so she could stand guard, and then Phoenix and Vivaldi, helped down by Luminescence.
Luminescence picked a direction, and they began to walk. As they went, he glanced at Vivaldi's epee. "Can you use that?"
Vivaldi blushed. "I… picked it in training. And did pretty well at the challenges there."
"You got any experience fighting anyone?"
Vivaldi shook his head. "I never actually… It's my first Game."
"Yeah, I gathered that."
"Do you want me to… go?"
He shook his head, glancing over at Etheria, who had now fallen into conversation with Phoenix. "No. We're all in this together. We don't have to be District barbarians and kill each other."
Vivaldi flinched. Pain twisted in his chest.
No.
That's why Thorin was here, wasn't it?
To make sure the players actually died, instead of taking pity on each other.
To make sure the Districts could have whatever bloody revenge it is they're looking for.
