Maxson DeLoria- Swing Vote D6M
"It's freakin medieval," Todd said, looking down on the mace on the table.
Theo grabbed it and stepped back so there was enough room for him to swing it around. "Long live the kingdom!" he bellowed.
"You'll put an eye out," Gaius protested, looking up from where he was scribbling plans and notes in a notebook we'd swiped.
"It's a mace. We'll put a whole face out," Todd said.
I wavered, wanting to smile but not really feeling it. We could mess around, but the calm couldn't last much longer. I'd survived the feast- which was more than I'd honestly been expecting- but the dwindling number of people only meant more and more focus on us from those who were left. We were one of the biggest alliances left, which had to put a target on our backs.
"How's it look?" I asked, sitting down next to Gaius to peek at the plans. It was mostly a list of the remaining Tributes. Luckily someone had a tactical mind- I couldn't possibly have remembered who all was left.
"I think the Cabellos will stay away until we lose someone. It's the Careers who are probably our next threat," Gaius said.
"You think they're looking for us?" I asked. It had always weirded me out how intense Gaius got when he was planning. So many Tributes were just kids thrown into something far beyond their experience, but Gaius seemed like he'd been an adult for a long time. It was scarily easy to imagine him killing someone.
"More specifically, I think they're looking to snipe us," Gaius said.
"For the heartland!"
The table shook as Todd threw Theo on it, both of them wrestling over the mace. Gaius looked up in annoyance as the impact jostled his pen across the paper haphazardly. My temper flared up.
"Would you two knock it off?!" Theo and Todd looked over at my sudden shout. "We're trying to figure out how not to die and you're acting like a couple of idiots!"
Todd and Theo stood up, Theo shamefacedly setting the mace on the table.
"Hey, man, we're just messing around," Todd said, holding up a hand in conciliation.
"You're always messing around," I snapped. Even as I said it, I could tell it really wasn't entirely about them. I was mad they were goofing off yes, but I was also scared and exhausted and and dreading the explosion we couldn't hide from forever. More than that, I was angry that Todd and Theo could goof off. The world was such a bright place for them. I hadn't been able to keep that innocence and enthusiasm, and a selfish bit of me resented them for it.
"Sorry," Theo muttered. He sat down. "You all working on a plan?"
Maybe I should have apologized too, but I honestly didn't want to. I settled for pushing the paper into the middle of the table as a gesture of peace.
"We were saying, the Careers are probably looking for us, but there's a lot of us, so they're going to try to locate and snipe us. Probably Emma…"
Shinju Matsushita- Heart of Darkness D3F
The mirror showed the top edge of a generic gray sink. At the top edge I could see two long, thin fluorescent lights stretching to the back side of the bathroom. Behind me there were teal and white tiles. Nowhere, not anywhere in the mirror, did I see my face. My soaking wet face, since I was unsure if I'd washed away the blood. I couldn't see it, after all.
You wanted this. My conscience laughed in my ear. All the evil I thought I'd left behind me- I should have known it wasn't that easy. Why should I get to shed that part of me like taking off a shirt, while everyone I killed didn't get that chance? They must have been watching from beyond the grave, satisfied to see their blood was finally answered. Was it fair, though, that more should join them? Nobody won in the end.
I slid a finger under my lip and gently prodded my left fang. It felt slightly sharper, but nothing remarkable. With the greater sensitivity of my tongue I traced out the shape of the tooth. It was longer, I could tell. Longer, and sharp enough it nicked at the skin of my tongue as it slid.
It's all wiped away, then, isn't it? I was afraid to leave the bathroom, but I needed to see. I came out into the hallway with nondescript rooms on either side. I wondered which ones people had died in, before I remembered this wasn't a real hospital. Down at the end of the hall there was an open sitting area between a crossroads of four halls. A skylight lit the purple couch and multicolored chairs.
So fitting, I thought. So fitting I would come from a bathroom. So long before I'd hidden in a bathroom, but not alone that time. I'd huddled in the corner, convinced the window would burn me if I stood in front of it. I could still feel every bit of that emotion- the bitterness, the fear, the unwillingness to believe it could be true. Finally, after so much encouragement, I'd held a hand, and I'd seen the light on my skin.
I stood at the edge of the skylight, where the brightness met the shadow. I held up a hand, hovering inches from it like it was a force field that would throw me back. I shivered as I put my hand forward.
Burning. Liquid pain crackled over my hand, like I'd splashed it into burning oil. I fell onto my backside in my haste to yank it back. From the floor, I looked sideways at the light. It was past me now. I glanced upward, at the sun. It stabbed my eyes so sharply I hissed. Without thinking, I bared my fangs and hissed. It was uncontrollable, an animal instinct.
I got to my feet and ran to the nearest room, shutting to door behind me so I was in the dark. If I just never left, I wouldn't hurt anyone else. But I was already thirsty again. It wasn't like any hunger I'd ever known. It peeled me away from the inside. It was tearing me apart until only the animal was left.
Paloma Bennett- Descent into Madness D10F
When I was little, once in a while we used to get catalogs in the mail from companies who were hoping to get a new customer. They would have anything from fancy luxury foods to weird gadgets. One of my favorites used to be this one that had ceramic figures and painted plates. Looking back, they would been a huge waste of money, but to nine-year-old me, they were the most beautiful, classy things on Earth. I used to daydream about saving up my pocket change and sending away for some porcelain plate with a cat painted on it, or a lamp that looked like a hummingbird on a flower. Then I would know I was really an elegant lady.
It was like revisiting my childhood, flipping through the sponsor gift catalog with Yttria. The two of us lay on our stomachs, propped up on our elbows as we went through the pages. We'd already read it multiple times, but we didn't want to rush into anything. We didn't really need anything at the moment anyway. We were just daydreaming.
The catalog started with food. There were packages of canned fruit. There were boxes of freeze-dried meals. For the more refined but less efficient palate, there were meal options like a roast chicken, or a tureen of soup, or a collection of pastries. Yttria and I weren't planning to order any of them, since we could survive on the vending machine food, but we loved to look at the pictures. Then there were weapons, first aid supplies, comfort items, and miscellaneous. Perhaps the most interesting item was a live snake. We were both sorely tempted by that one.
Yttria and I both started up in shock when the door creaked open. She looked at me with a mixture of confusion and panic, no doubt mirrored on my own face. I knew we'd locked the door. We always locked the door. I thought of the master key featured in the catalog. Had someone else already made an order?
The door was blocked from view by the long laboratory counter we were lying behind. Yttria and I crouched silently as we heard the Tribute walk from the doorway sideways to the other side of the room. A shadow fell across the floor before the Tribute stepped into view.
Shinju looked sick. It was obvious immediately. She was pale and looked somehow withdrawn and anxious. She saw us and shrank back.
"Stay away," Yttria said. She rose and grabbed the capsules of CS she'd condensed and sealed into fragile glass vials.
Shinju trembled. "I don't want," she said. She leaned back. Her mouth fell open. You don't want what? I wondered.
Shinju stepped forward. Yttria threw a vial. It landed at her feet and shattered. Even from the minimal exposure Yttria and I had gotten as she distilled the chemicals, I knew how painful direct contact would be. The gas would burn her eyes like pepper, and sear her nose and throat like an internal severe sunburn. I felt more pity than fear for Shinju. Clearly she wasn't well. I just hoped she left quickly.
Shinju stepped over the shattered glass like she hadn't even noticed it. I noticed two things, each worse than the last. The first was how strangely long her fangs were. The second was why the gas wasn't bothering her. Shinju wasn't breathing.
Behind me, Yttria bolted. I froze for a moment, unable to make sense of what I was seeing. Shinju took her chance and jumped at me. I screamed, shoving her away as I tripped over myself in my haste. There was a flash ahead of me and then our spear was in Shinju's side. She paid it no attention as she clawed at me. Of course it didn't hurt, I thought with strange lucidity. It's not wooden. Shinju tore at my shirt to expose my throat as I vainly struggled. Her eyes met mine before she struck. I saw there was a bit of human in them still, a bit that didn't want this.
North Freemont- Res D6F
It didn't seem fair that I couldn't test what I'd gotten at the feast. I could, theoretically, but it would have been a really bad idea. The small lump of plastic seemed so unassuming. It was a little rectangle the size of my hand, dotted with holes making up a speaker. The fancy-looking earplugs that came with it promised to block out the siren's noise but nothing else, so I already had them in my ear. According to the instructions, the siren was loud enough to instantly incapacitate an attacker. I wasn't sure what that meant. I'd been part of gang fights broken up by Peacekeepers before. They had this horribly obnoxious siren designed to clear out a room, and it certainly did. They also had this gun that would repeat your own voice back to you with a slight delay. It made it impossible to talk after a few minutes- I wasn't sure how, but it did. I saw that once at a protest. Then they shot everyone left after that. Since this was a feast prize, I was hoping it was even more dramatic. Maybe they would bleed out of their ears or maybe even explode. Is it true some sounds can make you poop your pants?
Unfortunately, that was the only thing I'd grabbed at the fest. Boring as it was, I'd been hoping for some food. The vending machines were starting to run a little thin in my area. There were plenty more in other areas, but I had to get there. That was risky under the best circumstances, but the rapid depletion of the machines in my area indicated someone else was close by. Worst-case scenario, they were a Career and knew about me just like I knew about them. They'd be waiting for me to come out.
I'd barely left the room before I had that skin-tingling feeling of being watched. I wasn't sure whether it was direct or just that someone was hunting me. If it was a Career who used a ranged weapon, I'd probably already be dead if they could see me. No, it was more of a cat-and-mouse thing, where the cat knew the mouse was in the walls but not exactly where.
The staircase was the most dangerous part of my route. The floor I was on was especially sterile and plain- no grand staircase or alternate routes. There were just the four staircases at the four edges, probably mandated by fire code. My pursuer didn't know which one I would take, but I still didn't like the odds. I stopped as a thought hit me. They might even have booby-trapped some or all of them. Noisy tin cans strung from the door handle, perhaps? Or a less subtle axe wedged above the frame?
Tink.
The encounter came so quickly I reacted on pure instinct. I threw myself forward, another dart slamming into the wall where my head had been. Before I even landed I'd activated the siren.
To me, it sounded like a mild beeping noise, like the sound a truck makes when it reverses. I could feel a strong reverberation in my chest that gave me a slight idea how loud it must have sounded to everyone else. I heard a scream, that one at normal volume. I turned and saw Diamond lying halfway exposed at a turn in the hallway I'd come down, his hands clapped to his ears as he writhed. He got to his knees and glared at me, still shaking with pain as blood ran down the sides of his neck.
I might be able to take him. I mulled the idea over in my head. In the end, though, I decided against it. He could still move well enough to sit up, and he looked really mad. Instead I picked up the two darts, careful to avoid the tips in case they were poisoned- another reason not to go closer and fight him. I ran to the staircase, wanting to shut the siren off as soon as possible but not daring to until I was out of range. At the last moment I thought back and stood to the side as I opened the door. No axe came crashing down. It seemed I was overprepared.
68th place: Paloma Bennett- bitten by Shinju
Having multiple vampires would kind of detract, so Shinju just drank enough that Paloma died and didn't turn into a vampire. When I decided to go after Yttria and Paloma, Yttria got favored because she can do more in this Arena. Paloma is still cool and had a lot to give. She made it more than halfway through, which is nice. You can't really do much when a vampire attacks you, unless you're Castiel.