Lily White- Into Thin Air D11F
It seemed like a miracle that no one else had found the nurse's lounge. Probably there was more than on in the hospital. It wasn't a very big room, and it couldn't possibly have fit all the nurses. The doctors might have come here as well, or maybe they had their own lounge. I hoped they did, since it would mean more lounges for other people to find and not find me.
The donuts on the counter were both encouraging and foreboding. They weren't moldy, or even stale. Obviously that meant the Gamemakers were restocking the food every now and then. On the one hand, that meant steady food, though they might not do it if I was in the room. On the other hand, it meant someone else might have been here recently and I wouldn't know from missing food.
Attached to the nurse's lounge there were three tiny bedrooms. It seemed weird nurses would sleep at work, but it made sense if they had long shifts. No one wants an exhausted nurse. The beds looked so tempting, but it would be an insane risk. Instead I took some extra blankets from the linen closet and made a little nest underneath the bed. I was hidden from view unless someone looked. If they did look, I wouldn't be able to get away, but it wouldn't have been able to on top of the bed either, in such a small room with only one door. Under the bed at least gave one layer of safety. I'm over halfway there. Every night I'd been going over the odds and making counts. Victory still seemed impossibly far away, but every night I lived to hear the Anthem gave me just a little more hope. It wouldn't be the first time someone small and weak had won the Games. There were so many Careers left. They had to be looking for each other. The rest of us could hope they'd keep fighting until they'd all killed each other.
My hope vanished like a snuffed candle when the doorknob turned. The biggest flaw of the bedrooms was that they didn't lock- to wake the nurses in an emergency, I guessed. It was a calculated risk that a locked door only confirmed someone was inside anyway.
It was too dark to tell much about whoever was coming into the room. He looked male and that was about all I could see, until I saw the silhouette of what he was carrying, lit from the light of the lounge behind him. A stillness came over me unlike any normal lack of movement. It was the primal freeze of a prey animal. Already my body knew that I needed to make absolutely no noise until whoever it was fell asleep. If I did, I would die.
The boy bent over to climb under the bed. No! I wanted to scream at him. Why couldn't you just get in bed? I yanked my flashlight up in front of me, squeezing my eyes shut and flinching at the slide of the metal across the floor. After I clicked it on, I knew the boy hadn't heard me in time. I heard a thump as almost painful light flicked on and off even through my eyelids until I switched it off and opened my eyes. I shoved myself sideways to come out at the foot of the bed, hoping he'd shoot at where the light was coming from. The boy was on his hands and knees as I came out. He put up his gun arm and swung it around wildly, his eyes wild with fear as they darted around, clearly unable to see me. The room was maybe eight feet across. I might have been able to sneak past him, but if he heard me, what then? He was already standing, stumbling a little. He might stumble right into me in the corner of the room at the foot of the bed. All that and more went through my mind as I made a choice. I would carry it with me that those weren't the only thoughts. I also thought about how very much safer I would be if I had a gun.
I swung the metal flashlight into the boy's head. It caught him full force, since he couldn't see it coming. It looked so unnatural, how he didn't brace for it or roll with it. It was like he'd been struck by lightning. He fell like a dead man, not breaking the fall in the slightest. As he fell, I wondered why he hadn't shot. Surely he'd known I might do this. Even if he couldn't see me, he might have gotten lucky. He would have had a chance.
After the boy's head hit the linoleum floor with a crack like someone had dropped a slab of meat, I took the gun from his hand and fled. His cannon hadn't sounded yet. I didn't want to be there when it did. Was it really murder, what I did? Whether or not, I knew for sure I hadn't had to do it. But there was a gun in my hands, cold and hard and safe. I ran to a nearby office room to wait for the body collection. There I looked inside the gun and felt the weight of what I'd done. The boy was dead, and the gun was empty.
Soren Lyte- Written in Ice D4M
I knew it was coming but I didn't know from where. Would it be a sword? A spear? Some horrible thing from the feast? It was a relief when it happened and it only hurt for a moment.
Elissa de Angelo- Descent into Madness D1F
Where. Are. They?
There was someone nearby. I knew there was someone nearby. I could see it in the broken branches and the faint but clear footsteps, footsteps that very often appeared in a spot I had already been and had just left. Were they following me? The footsteps were so small for a Career, though of course that didn't prove anything entirely- just look at Marley or Pray. But if it was a Career, they would have attacked by now. I was right on top of them. No, it had to be an outlier. It was an outlier, and they couldn't flee. It was the dead of night. The half-moon cast barely enough light for me to see. The brightest thing, so bright I didn't look at it to avoid resetting my night vision, was the lighting from the hospital a hundred feet away. Anyone who wanted to flee had the force field on one side of them and the hospital on the other. Running toward the hospital would mean full exposure. I wished they would run. I just wished they would try it. Instead they were sneaking through the scattered cover of the garden. In the dead of night, they were trying to throw off a stalking Career, and somehow they were doing it.
There was a rustle in the leaves behind me. I whirled around, my bow already aimed at the spot. Nothing. I followed the noise through a clump of waist-high shrubs and found myself in a cultivated garden- a plot of tilled earth and separated crops rather than the less formal green space I'd come from. To my right, there was a dirt path flanked on either side by perhaps a half-acre of thick prairie grass and wildflowers. When the sun was on them, they must have been very pretty. In the gloomy moonlight, all I could see was muddled browns and grays.
I swear if I get Lyme disease… I stalked along the path, looking for any separation in the grass. But of course, of course there was a breeze. Of course there was a breeze swirling the grass together and hiding the tell-tale trails. Whatever trails I did find were doubled over and circled around. It was like trying to punch through a winding mole trail and come out with the mole in my fist.
The faint crack was like a gunshot to my straining ears. I crouched in the grass, letting it hide me as well as it was hiding my prey, the dry stalks and long blades of grass sliding over my pants and tickling my skin. I came out by the tree where I'd heard the sound. It was tall, with thick branches, its wide leaves rustling in the wind. It would be a bold move to sneak to it and climb it. But might boldness pay off? It would be risky to go up after someone. They might kick down at me as I climbed or break a branch down on my head. I stood at a safe distance from the tree, straining my eyes to see any giveaway human shape among the dim natural lines. I didn't take longer than a minute to look. There was nothing there. It had been a distraction.
No bother. I could still find them. I searched around the shorter grass bordering the prairie garden and not more than a minute passed before I found a circle of pressed-down grass about the size of a hand. I looked out at the night stretching before me. My prey might be psychic, somehow able to see in the dark and divine where I was, but I'd trained all my life for this.
Sofie Ferrari- A Night to Remember D6F
My neck ached as I stiffly looked down my shirt. At the feast I'd taken a single bag while the Careers and the others paid me no attention. Inside the bag there had been a rectangular device about the size of my hand. If not for the instructions, I might not have been able to tell what it was until too late. On the device's screen there was a cross-hair pattern with a dot at the center. The instructions helpfully added that it was accurate as far as fifty feet. A single additional dot slid around the screen, almost always getting closer to me. Sometimes I saw her and would move when her back was turned. As often as I eluded her, Elissa found my trail again. The dot slid closer and I looked around for where I could go next. My mud-stained clothes would cover me in anywhere without direct moonlight. The moon drifted behind a cloud. I made my move, Elissa's dot once again drifting from mine.
Theo Wondderoo- Touch the Sky D8M
"Star Trek clearly has the greatest staying power." It wasn't the take I'd expected from Todd. Sure, Star Trek was a piece of history, but it was a piece of history. Really? The greatest science fiction series ever was from a hundred and fifty years ago? Get with the times, old man.
"Yeah, yeah, it was foundational," I said, waving my hand. "Speaking of, so was Foundation. But I digress. Its science was rudimentary, though. The greatest science fiction story, a mere space opera? And Gabriel Blew His Trumpet had exponentially greater understanding of the theory behind science fiction. The grasp of wormhole theory in Moebius was beyond anything Star Trek has to offer."
Todd scoffed. "Yeah, and the character depth of Asimov," he said. "Wow, a square-jawed captain learning to trust his crewmates and a half-species second-in-command facing scrutiny and torn between her disparate parent cultures. Yawn."
"You two like Starship Troopers?" Gaius piped up.
"Important question," I asked. "Was it a sincere pro-military discipline work, or was it a satire?"
At once, Todd and I were united against a common enemy. We stood together, waiting for Gaius to pass or fail the test.
"Sincere," he said.
"Right on," Todd said as I slapped Gaius' hand. Anti-military stories were a dime a dozen. Admirable concept, yes, but nothing at all controversial or unique. Wow, you don't like war. That's genius! Here I was just starting wars for the fun of it. I wasn't saying war was good. No one was saying war was good. I was only saying that "War is very very bad! We should stop fighting!" was an incredibly simplistic screed that insulted everyone. Agree with him or not, Heinlein's unapologetic support of a strong defense system was at least a bold take.
"I like Nova Man."
Todd and I turned to take in Maxson's "contribution." I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, reminding myself that it takes all types to make a world. There was nothing wrong with Nova Man. Superhero stories are a perfectly valid subtype of science fiction. At their greatest, some of them were true classics. It was just difficult to think of the six repetitive, derivative Nova Man movies, with their climaxes that focused more on dazzling special effects than anything profound or original, alongside such genuine pieces of philosophy and art as And Gabriel Blew His Trumpet, the show that devised a new scientific theorem to formulate its rules for black hole travel. A theorem that, incidentally, was still held to be the best theoretical explanation.
"It was pretty cool how he defeated Xeros," I conceded.
"Attention, Tributes!"
We looked at each other in trepidation.
"We had so much fun at the last feast-"
We looked at each other in panic at the word "last".
"We've decided to have another one!"
Gaius leaned his head back and groaned.
"We're so sad some people missed out!"
"Oh no," Todd said. A moment later I kicked myself that he'd gotten it first.
"So this time, all the people who weren't at the first were invited!"
56th place: Soren Lyte- Bludgeoned by Lily
A lot of males are dying lately. This time it was because I had this scene in mind and it was either now or wait another entire cycle of POVs to get back to Lily again. The feast will have a ton of girls, though, so that should even things up. Soren got a but of a bum deal his first time around, so I gave him some time to shine here. Getting this far is impressive for anyone, much less someone untrained. He's in the top third, which is basically the top eight. It sounds cooler when you say it like that.