Olivine Martinez- Back to Normal D1F
Humans adapted so easily to the people they befriended. A soon as they were on their own, though, their original personalities came through. I didn't have the luxury of being casual anymore. If I wanted to stay alive, I had the win the Games on my own- no friends to watch my back. I did very much want to win the Games. I wanted a normal life. By my standards, even a Victor had a normal life. Any life would be tolerable if it just wasn't this eternal limbo. Even more than that, though, winning meant I could help Marley and Lottie when they came back last time. I would be safe and they would never have to worry about losing me again. I'd still have to worry about them, but if Ava could make it, and if I could make it, there was hope we could all be together someday.
A screen winked onto the ceiling over my head. I looked up, already anxious about whatever horrible thing the Gamemakers had cooked up, and saw some girl I didn't recognize. She was a Tribute- that much was clear from the far-too-familiar hospital room around her- but I had no idea why she would be broadcast. For that, I would have to read the words at the top and bottom of the screen.
Lacey Weaver of District Eight has used her Sure Shot Buck, instantly eliminating the target of her choice! As per the conditions listed on the coupon, her location will now be broadcast for six consecutive hours! Her current location is the fifth floor.
Well, that accounts for one of the cannons. Wonder who she picked? I felt a pinprick of insult that she hadn't chosen me, even though I knew that was stupid. My peevishness turned to mourning when I reflected that if Lottie had been alive, Lacey surely would have picked her. It would have been an easier way to go. In any case, I'd know who it was in a few hours when night fell and the anthem played.
Lacey's safe from me, I mused as I watched the screen curiously. I wasn't about to go track her down when that meant I'd be onscreen as soon as I got close to her. Let the Two army go after her if they wanted. Mostly likely they would, in my estimation. It would be a quick outing for one more eliminated competitor.
On the screen, Lacey was standing on a table. She pulled a chair up after her and scrambled up onto it. She started pushing at a ceiling tile and I saw where she was going. She would have had quite the job to avoid everyone searching for her on the fifth floor when she'd be livestreamed every time she snuck into the hallway to try to get past them. The ceiling pocket looked the same wherever she went. It would greatly increase the difficulty of finding her.
I looked away from the screen to get back to work. A moment later, as I was walking, something stopped me. Butterflies welled up in my stomach. You don't suppose someone else got a Sure Shot Buck, too?
Flint Kenyte- No Way Down D2M
Tuesday came through the door and flashed two finger guns.
"So," she said to me and Joseph. "Jessie ditched."
"Really?" I asked. It was more an expression of surprise than an actual question. I didn't really think she was going to go "just kidding!" and step aside to show Jessie.
"I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I think she might have gone to find Fable," Joseph said solemnly.
"So where does that leave us?" Tuesday said as she sat at a separate table. It had definitely seemed like Chrome and Jessie were the ringleaders of the alliance- Chrome, really. We'd all suspected she'd been the one to write the blog post, though she'd denied it.
"To be really honest, I was just here because I thought everyone else would target me if I didn't," Joseph said.
"I posted a poll on my blog and let people decide for me," Tuesday confessed.
"I just like having friends," Flint shrugged. I could see the writing on the wall. It didn't seem like it would necessarily be violent, but our little Two party was coming to an end. I'd miss the company, but it was relatively safe to go it alone at this point. The only Career alliance left would be Jessie and Fable. They were dangerous, yeah, but there would always be some danger in the Games. One alliance wasn't that bad.
"If we're being really honest," Joseph said hesitantly, "I kind of have some other things I wanted to do. I'm not too attached to the whole alliance thing."
"You all want to split up?" Tuesady asked. All three of us flinched at split, darting glances at each other in case it signaled a Career breakup. When no one got up, she went on. "One of us goes that way-" she pointed out the doorway to the left- "and one of us goes the other way? Third waits around here for a while, I guess, and then goes whichever way?"
"Sounds good," Joseph said. I already didn't really feel bad, since we'd all signed up for this, but it was a huge relief Chrome wasn't here. It definitely would have turned into a Career breakup if she was.
"I'll go left," Tuesday volunteered and started to stand up. "Just let me grab some food while I'm here."
"I'll go right," Joseph seconded. He waited to the side as she pulled out food so it wouldn't seem like he was trying to sneak up on me.
"Anything you want?" she asked. Nice to see even Careers were raised to be polite.
"I like the turkey sandwiches if you don't mind," he said.
"Guess I'll stay here for a bit," I said. I could grab some more food, faff around a few minutes, and then go to the right. Joseph seemed plenty strong, but he'd been more and more hesitant about killing lately, so it seemed like the more logical call. I stretched out on the couch with one of those weird patterns you only see in waiting rooms. "Don't gotta tell me twice."
Camille Igawa- Let the Good Times Roll D9F
If I used almond paste instead of almond extract, maybe Bayleigh would like it. Almond really does just add that extra pop to a white cake. Usually I'd be thinking about wreaking havoc or fighting the power, but I'd run out of crazy things to daydream about. Also, I just really missing real food. I hadn't run out of food yet. The ambulance drivers seemed to live off of really high-calorie protein bars, suggesting they worked really long hours and didn't get much break. I was just really sick of protein bars. They all this icky sandy texture and just slightly-off taste. You could close your eyes and pretend you were eating peanut butter or chocolate chips or whatever they were supposed to be flavored like, but your body wouldn't let you convince it.
Nature called, so I cautiously peeked around the corner of the ajar door to the front seats. No one was there, so I climbed into the driver's seat and reached out to open the door. Oh, no. Oh, that ain't right.
It was like someone had cracked a giant egg under the ambulance. There was white-tinged clear goop all around the ambulance. It pulsated a little at the edges as it oozed up the wheels. I got a wave of nausea and anxiety thinking about what would have happened if I'd been in the back another few minutes. It didn't take a genius to know that moving goop was never good news. It was trying to engulf the ambulance. Through the window I could see that none of the other ambulances had goop. No, it was trying to engulf me.
Don't panic, I told myself. I opened the door, praying that the goop couldn't move vertically off the ground and it wasn't just that it hadn't yet. It was only two feet to the edge of the goop. I could make it. Then… I guess I'd see how fast it could run. The protein bar I'd just eaten rose to just below my throat. What was it like to be engulfed? Would it dissolve me before I suffocated? Would the goop go on to find other people? I would be part of it. I would be absorbed entirely into that unreasoning, homogeneous clearness.
As I sprang to jump, the goop shot out along the ground. I screamed as I pulled back on the ambulance frame, barely keeping from falling out. The goop had shot out just were I would have landed. I made a squealing noise in the back of my throat as I thought of the instant I would have hit the goop and the feeling of it sticking to me, holding me in place or dragging me in closer as it gathered me in.
I pulled myself back into the ambulance, heaving as I fought off tears. The goop was already nearly touching the bottom of the door. I stared at the frame with cold horror, knowing it would fit through the cracks. I rolled down the window in a near-frenzy, scrambling into the window frame and onto the roof. The goop oozed up after me, flowing like batter slowly flooding into a baking tin. What had I even accomplished, getting onto the roof? I'd only bought a few more minutes before the same thing happened as if I'd done nothing. Will it hurt when I touch it? Will it burn like acid as I fall apart?
I took out the little catalog in my pocket and started flipping through pages. There must be something in there that could kill it. But what was it. What was it?!
Don't panic. If you panic, you will die. I shut off my feelings and forced myself to think. Muttations usually fit the arena. This is a medical arena. It's goopy. It's whitish. It's trying to absorb me.
Hope lit in me. I've learned about this. I dredged up every bit of high school science I'd learned, bitterly wishing I'd paid more attention. I'd learned about- That's it. White blood cells. White blood cells absorbed things. It was called- that doesn't matter. What kills them?
I flipped to the chemical section of the catalog. I started to blurt something out, then clamped my hands over my mouth as I realized how close I'd come to blowing my one chance.I'd been about to order antibiotics. They killed germs, right? White blood cells aren't germs, moron.
Lead. Arsenic. Strychnine. Cobra venom. None of those killed white blood cells, right? I peeked over the side and saw the cell was past the top of the window. Borax. Helium. It's going to get me. Freon. Ammonia. Bleach.
"BLEACH! Send me bleach!"
A ceiling tile slid aside. A parachute fluttered down for a single instant before I jumped and yanked it out of the air, the cell already onto the roof and less than a meter from my feet. I tore the box open and yanked the cap so hard the child-proof grooves popped right off. I poured it out in a ring around my feet, dousing the cell. The surface of the cell split open like a popped bubble. Thin liquid oozed out as the cell retreated toward the edge of the roof. I kept pouring bleach, knowing that if it didn't work, there was no hope anyway. The cell slid wetly down the side of the ambulance, greased by its own juices. By the time it reached the floor it was a loose puddle. I stared down at it, trying to catch my breath, for a long minute. When I knew it was over, I let myself dissolve into tears.
I did a lot of deaths a few chapters ago so I get to slow things down now and then. Camille's POV ended up long but I let it stay because it didn't make anyone else's shorter. It just gave her some extra time, which will get evened out eventually.